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Selected by Thomas Peatling, shipped by Warre, bottled 1989. Pale brick-red colour, 20% opaque. Nosing gentley of tobacco and a bit of bottle stink. Huge dose of sweet tobacco on entry; then very bitter fruit dominated by the acidity. Burningly acidic on the aftertaste, with a very long and bitter finish. There is plenty of fruit flavour and plenty of sweetness in this medium bodied port, but the acidity and bitterness is overwhelming. Drunk 13-Aug-12. Decanted 1 hour.

After a further hour in the decanter, much of the bitterness had mellowed, leaving a much better balanced port with a decent balance and pleasant drinking. On this later showing, I would score this at 85/100.

It's interesting that it doesn't sound much like the Warre vintages from the mid-to-late 80s which would, presumably go into the blend.

Do you know the history of this bottle?

This was one a bottle that I acquired at auction that came in a mixed lot with things like the Corte 1984 that we had at the Delaforce offline. I didn't enquire what the provenance was.

The port was very interesting. 1 hour's decant produced a port that was really unbalanced, bitter and not very pleasant.

A further hour produced a port that was more mellow, the bitterness had receded and the balance had much improved.

Another hour, and this was showing like a Warre. Lots of sweet plum and a nice, mid-weight balance to it.

The remainder of the bottle is still in the decanter in the wine cabinet, waiting to be drunk either tonight (unlikely given the sunshine and warmth, more likely to finish off the White Port also in the cabinet) or tomorrow night (rain forecast again).