NV Barao de Vilar Ruby

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Joined: 16:37 Sat 03 May 2008
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NV Barao de Vilar Ruby

Post by JacobH »

Plucked off the wine-rack on the basis it might be more interesting than another Croft LBV!

Filtered with a t-cork. Deep purple, opaque centre, fading quite dramatically to a purply-red rim.

On the nose, some complex dense red fruits. Dark cherries and blackcurrants. Quite attractive and not too difficult. In the mouth, the blackcurrants predominate: along with a syrupy sugar, this reminds me of drinking Ribena. Followed by a little bit of structure, with somewhat reduces the elegance of the Port, as does the surprising furriness on the back of the tongue. This is extremely one-dimensional Port with none of the Summer-pudding fruitiness of some rubies (such as the Taylor). However, there is also nothing wrong with it which I think is a very good thing since it is quite rare when drinking the lowest category of Port. The heat is not excessive. There is no astringency of bitterness and you can quite happily drink quite a lot of this without further thought.

Would I buy some more? If I saw it in an off-licence, priced at £15 then no. If I saw it at £10 then perhaps yes. In a supermarket or online, if they could get this under £10 a bottle, I think they would be onto something.

This is the third time I have drunk Barão de Vilar. As with the 2003 LBV this is rather attractive wine, making me rate this shipper rather highly for standard Ports. I have yet to try some of their premium offerings to see how the quality matches up.
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