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As part of the plan to drink JDAW’s US-located port, a tasting of Taylor, Fonseca, Warre was held on Saturday 18th April 2009 at Petite Abeille, 401 East 20th Street at First Avenue, NY 10010-7501.

Links:

• Review of evening as a whole;
• 1948 Taylor;
• 1963 Taylor;
• 1966 Taylor;
• 1966 Fonseca;
• 1966 Warre;
• 1970 Fonseca;
• 1977 Taylor;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1977 Warre;
• 1985 Fonseca;
• 1985 Warre;
• Planning and arrangements;
• Placemats.

This thread is to hold tasting notes and comments on the Taylor 1963.

T63 decanted 15:40. Brick red, mid translucency. Very soft on the palate, revealing strawberry and cherry. Delicious already hmm, is it really necessary to wait for the others?

T63: lovely soft port. Colour resembling that of its fifteen-years-older sibling. To taste initially fire, then unctuous soft mouth-filling port. Vanilla? Mint? But then so soft lovely fully-mature juice. Drink up.

Reddish brown on the color.

Anise, birch and bananas on the nose backed by a minty black tea.

Woody cranberries, full, hot on the palate but full spicy mouthfeel.

Drying tannins with a slightly bitter and spicy finish that gets caught in the throat.

90.

Lighter in colour than the 1948, mostly brown. The nose is soft, with only a little bit of fire, mint and delicate red fruit. It's also slightly dusty. In the mouth it starts as a lovely soft and mature drinker, but gets very hot very soon. Muted at first, and lacking fruit. It does get slightly better with time. Very decent mature port, but not the best showing for a Taylor 1963. 89 points.

By pure coincidence, I drank another bottle of Taylor 1963 a week later, courtesy of StevieCage. I didn't make notes but this particular bottle was definitely better than the one at our offline. Lovely delicate, sweetish fruit with a nice spicy backbone. This bottle was also completely mature to my taste.

Very similar in color to the Taylor 48 at this tasting, dark, strong red, with that dusky rose coming in. It's got lots of licorice and orange, some heat, and a little menthol in the nose. The mouth has less chocolate than i expected, currants, and some grip in the back of the taste. It's not as firey as the 1948, and overall i've rated it a 95.

I've had this once before and it was unbelievably good that time (super-smooth and round, full of chocolate), this bottle wasn't quite as lovely but it was still very nice.