1990 Gilbert LBV
Posted: 18:32 Sat 21 Jul 2012
Gilbert’s is an old Port brand, rarely encountered. In 2001 it was given a completely mad make-over by Amorim (the cork company that also owns Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo) who truncated its name down to ‟G Port”.
The 1990 LBV is a somewhat more restrained affair and since this bottle predates the re-branding, I am not in a position, unfortunately, to comment on whether it tastes like ‟the Port of Force...” (&c. &c.).
Anyway, unusually, this had had 5 years in wood before being bottled in 1995. The bottle did not mention if it was filtered or not, but produced quite a lot of sediment on decanting so possibly not.
At 1+ hours, it is a medium plumy colour in the middle, fading to translucence. A little bit cloudy, unfortunately, but not unbearably so.
On the nose, it is rather restrained and elegant. There is some toffee sweets, mixed with a nice floral perfume.
In the mouth, the initial entry is somewhat soft. Their is some distant primary fruit but it has mostly faded. If this were a VP, I might be tempted to suggest it was a minor vintage from the 1970s. The mid-palate is slightly unpleasant, with a wet paper-bag sensation (though more in the sense of an over-tired wine than being corked). The aftertaste improves things considerably. Reasonably long, it has the taste of fresh under-ripe firm cherries, with is rather pleasant.
Perhaps this is a bad time to be drinking this wine; it may have been a bit more robust as a mature Port a few years ago, and would improve to an ‟old” Port with all sorts of tertiary flavours coming through in a few more years (assuming they don’t fade to nothing).
It will be interesting to see how this develops in the decanter.
The 1990 LBV is a somewhat more restrained affair and since this bottle predates the re-branding, I am not in a position, unfortunately, to comment on whether it tastes like ‟the Port of Force...” (&c. &c.).
Anyway, unusually, this had had 5 years in wood before being bottled in 1995. The bottle did not mention if it was filtered or not, but produced quite a lot of sediment on decanting so possibly not.
At 1+ hours, it is a medium plumy colour in the middle, fading to translucence. A little bit cloudy, unfortunately, but not unbearably so.
On the nose, it is rather restrained and elegant. There is some toffee sweets, mixed with a nice floral perfume.
In the mouth, the initial entry is somewhat soft. Their is some distant primary fruit but it has mostly faded. If this were a VP, I might be tempted to suggest it was a minor vintage from the 1970s. The mid-palate is slightly unpleasant, with a wet paper-bag sensation (though more in the sense of an over-tired wine than being corked). The aftertaste improves things considerably. Reasonably long, it has the taste of fresh under-ripe firm cherries, with is rather pleasant.
Perhaps this is a bad time to be drinking this wine; it may have been a bit more robust as a mature Port a few years ago, and would improve to an ‟old” Port with all sorts of tertiary flavours coming through in a few more years (assuming they don’t fade to nothing).
It will be interesting to see how this develops in the decanter.