1977 Delaforce
Posted: 15:37 Fri 27 Dec 2013
D+0h: smells of raisins, D+6h: garnet red, smells ethereal of eucalyptus, some caramel as well, in the mouth: medium-body, still some fruit left, more half-dry/semi-sweet, some pepper on the palate, finish of sufficient length (ca. 15 sec), quite a lovely port (also without any wine faults such as TCA which, according to wine literature, is a problem with this vintage), 90 p.
I was surprised that it was still so youthful. I tasted the undeclared '77 Cockburn a couple of weeks ago and found the Cockburn older and with more varnish notes. So I braced myself for a lot of varnish in the nose and the palate (and was pleasantly surprised). Perhaps all this talk in wine literature about the '77 fading is not to be taken too seriously if even a shipper such as Delaforce can hold as firm as that. (But I must admit that I'm just a beginner in port and tasted only the Delaforce and the Cockburn of the '77 vintage).
I was surprised that it was still so youthful. I tasted the undeclared '77 Cockburn a couple of weeks ago and found the Cockburn older and with more varnish notes. So I braced myself for a lot of varnish in the nose and the palate (and was pleasantly surprised). Perhaps all this talk in wine literature about the '77 fading is not to be taken too seriously if even a shipper such as Delaforce can hold as firm as that. (But I must admit that I'm just a beginner in port and tasted only the Delaforce and the Cockburn of the '77 vintage).