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Purchased from Tom Archer 3 to 4 months ago. Another 2 have now graced my cellar, thanks to Tom's generosity, which has prompted me to open this bottle. I will decant it tonight and the take it to London tomorrow morning to be consumed over 2 to 3 days.

The label looks like this...



Derek

Having had bad experiences with ’75s, especially Grahams, from a decade ago to almost twice that, I gave up on this vintage. In mixed lots I always value the 75s at zero: let me know if I’m wrong.

Jdaw,

You are wrong. Give them a chance, especially this one.



Derek

On decanting

Very dark for an off vintage of this age but, unfortunatley, it's badly corked

I will take it along on the trip anyway and see how it does. Hopefully the wet cardboard will blow off

Derek

Despite the cardboard problem, this wine has a very attractive colour and a beautiful thick mouth feel. It's heat is slightly over-powering all other senses at the moment but I think this will have an interesting tomorrow.

Amazing colour. Very, very ruby. Like a ruby.

Derek

A pity that it's corked. The bottle that we had during the Crusting Pipe offline was singing.

Bummer...but good thing that isn't stoping you from drinking it.

ADV wrote:Bummer...but good thing that isn't stoping you from drinking it.

When has it ever

Much less cardboard tonight, almost none in fact. I am so glad I don't let this get to me otherwise this might have gone down the sink or into a spag bol

Some mint on the nose now. Big, thick, dry, chocolatey yumminess. Not as stunning as I remember its sibling being at the Crusting Pipe, which was decanted for a similar time as this bottle is now, but a very nice port which blows the "all 75's are worth nothing" notion out of the water. Very good finish. I can still taste it even though I last had a sip before starting this two-fingered attempt at typing

There is a remote possibility that some of this will survive until tomorrow. If so, there will be an update to come...

Derek

This is a new experience for me. The third night and I still have more than half a bottle sitting in front of me Is it possible that I am working harder than Ghandih ?

The thing that has struck me more than anything else about this wine is the colour. Gorgeous.

Cardboard corkiness - gone. Nose is quite spirity. Mouthfeel is still thick and satisfying. Dark fruits, chocolate and some mint on the end. Three days in - 1975 - give me a break !!!

This is actually a stunning wine. Most 1975's I have had are much more tawny in appearance and as hot as the fires of Hell. The vintage did not last the pace, which is not something you could say of this wine. Dark, brooding and holding up very well. On each of the three nights I have tasted it it has improved. Tom, you have a few keepers in your cellar

Derek

PS: Did I mention the colour? I only remember taking this feeling away from 2 wines. The 1966 Fonseca at the Crusting Pipe in Nov 05 and this bottle. This is very shiny, shiny ruby port - beautiful.

I started out tonight believing that I would be adding to this thread tomorrow. But is not possible to add to a TN without something to T

This is great juice. Forget all that corky stuff, no evidence of it now and just very, very good VP.

Tom, you had better lock this stuff away the next time I rade that cellar

Derek

The corked aspect of this caught my attention. Great to here a Port survived that, and became very drinkable.
On a selfish note, that does make me do one of these, , when I think of that Offleys 63 that was poured away at the Crusting Pipe.
You live and learn. Next time, the cork goes back in, and experiments start over the next few days. In the hope it revives like your Croft certainly did.

Alan

Derek - are you sure that the wine was corked? I've never known a corked wine to recover over time, only to lose more and more fruit smell and develop more and more wet cardboard.

The only time I have known wines to recover from a flaw was when it suffered from bottle stink - which I describe as black treacle, burnt rubber or cabbage soup. (See a TN here.) I have since learnt that these are flaws introduced to a wine when it matures in a bottle in the presence of too little oxygen, apparently these smells are generated by sulphur compounds from the sulphurisation that most winemakers use to stabilise their wines. These smells will disappear once the wine has been exposed to air for long enough for the sulphur to oxidise to a less smelly compound or to become sufficiently diluted so as to lose their impact. The trick, I guess, is to get the balance right between allowing the reductive flaws to oxidise off while trying to ensure that the fruit and flavours of the wine stay behind.

I wonder if your wine suffered from reductive aging rather than corkiness?

Just a thought.

Alex

Alex,

Yes, I think bottle stink could have been the problem. The bottle of this that we shared at the Crusting Pipe could also have suffered from this same thing but I did not taste or smell it when I decanted it the night before the offline.

It will be interesting to see if Tom gets the same thing when he opens one of his.

Derek