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Consumed on 20 May 2009 at The Crusted Pipe in a "bring a bottle to share" and 2007 Horizontal offline.

An unusual Port kindly shared by AHB. The term "Crusted" could have quite easily applied to state of the bottle!

Fairly light in colour, it was a Port at full maturity. Most of us thought it was from 1963 or 1970. Quite subtlely flavoured, it was in perfect drinking condition (thank goodness it didn't take another 5 years for Alex to discover it). My offline tasting notes are always [more] rubbish compared to usual but this was an lovely wine to have.

The more early Churchill I have, the more interesting I think it is. Some of these early Crusteds and LBVs were very quick to mature and are now excellent to drink. Of course a few seem to have gone over the hill already (the 1987 Crusted particularly comes to mind) but the ones they got right, they really got right.

Bottled in 1984, purchased from a wine shop in rural Oxfordshire, along with a magnificent hlaf bottle of Warre 1983. Very pale in colour (although it gained in weight in the glass), looking like a younger colheita. Very hot on the nose, but with some sweet and pleasant raspberry jelly. Soft and sweet in the mouth; some lovely finesse and elegance but with a soft and gentle development of layers of sweet rose-hip fruit. A burst of heat on the aftertaste, but then a decent length of soft and gentle sweet cranberries. Improved significantly in the glass over a couple of hours - double decanting did this bottle no favours. 89/100.

This was a close 2nd for my wine of the night. Quite light but with noticeable fruits. Not at all what I expected from a crusted port - I guessed at a Croft 1963!

Must say I got it also completly wrong with this bottle. Thought/Guessed initially also it was a 1963. Found the wine quite complex and apealing. Liked that is was very smooth and soft. Was my third best wine of the night (after Quarles Harris 1980 and Malvedos 1987)