ThePortForum.com

Bottled in 2007
Pull-style cork

I acquired this during the "25% off all ports" campaign in the local supermarket about 6 months ago.



Decanted at 5pm: Thick, gooey, caramel - heat, but a bit sickly sweet.

Now usually I make multiple notes - each time there's a sampling (or sometimes even a drinking) - and I did - but those go "ditto", "ditto" etc etc. One of the things I enjoy about "fruit" ports is the way they change over time, but this didn't seem to very much.

Forsooth I understand that this is port, but it isn't my idea of what port should taste like - it just doesn't taste like fortified wine, and I like wine, fortified or not.

Have I given up on tawny and its cousins?
Not yet - I have some Colheitas still waiting, and I guess I ought to find a 10YO and a 40YO, just for completeness, but I'm not running out to buy any more of this - if it were 15 euros, maybe I'd keep one in stock for a future experiment - tastes do change, but at 50 euros (pre-discount) I'd rather have 5 bottles of low-end LBV, or 2 1/2 bottles of 2011 Vau, or, better yet, 1 5/8 bottles of Filipa Pato's Espirito de Baga, than one of these.

Ramos Pinto really make very good Tawny ports and 20 years is the right age (10 is too young and 40 too old IMHO).So it's not due to bad quality that you didn't like it. Did you drink it chilled (so a little colder than you would normally drink a red wine)? If you drink a Tawny too warm, the alcohol is too pronounced and overlays the flavour. If you did drink it properly chilled, then there is only one conclusion: You simply don't like Tawny port. Which is a good thing to find out, now you can focus your time and money on ruby style ports (LBV, Crusted and VP).

AW77 wrote:there is only one conclusion: You simply don't like Tawny port.

I agree with Andre. If you do not like Ramos Pinto Quinta do Bom Retiro 20-yr old Tawny Port, then you simply do not like Tawny Port. That was my favorite 20-yr old for several years. It probably still is, but it's hard to find in the US so I haven't had it for a while to re-verify its status as my favorite.

The one knock against it is that it can be a little bit spirity, but I've never found it distracting and as Andre said if you chill it very slightly the spirit disappears. A 2007 bottling is also a little old for a Tawny, at least according to most people, though I've never had a problem with bottle-aged Tawnies.

There is a chance that you will enjoy your Colheitas, but I fear not. RP's 20-yr old is a superb example of the genre.

They don't really transform in bottle once opened though. This is the big difference between Tawny and VP (and other rubies). Tawnies are more like Madeira, stabilised through their long period if oxidisation.

Glenn E. wrote:RP's 20-yr old is a superb example of the genre.

I was hoping it was something of a reference bottle - hence my experimenting with it.

It's not that I didn't like it...

Let's say I won (really, not a "Nigerian" win) tickets to either a Rugby International or a Football international - my choice.
I like the odd game of football, but the choice there will be the Rugby match every time.
Perhaps if I'd been to a rugby match every day for a month - perhaps I'd pick the Football, just for the change, and then I'd be back to picking the Rugby.
Between "Die Zauberflöte" or "La Bohème" - Bohème every time (unless the Zauberflöte was at La Scala since I've never managed to get tickets). But this is slightly more complicated - if it were Damrau singing the Queen, I might have to go to that - I'd like to hear her sing it once (although, if memory serves correctly, she said she'd never sing it again - chance missed) - but not night after night.
I guess the equivalent there is, I don't know, a free bottle of the Oublie, or a free bottle of a decent LBV - I'd obviously pick the Oublie, but just for the one off experience - if it tastes like tawny, which I suspect it must, I'd rather a case of LBV washed up on my desert island.

Quinta do Bom Retiro is IMHO in the top ten in the world.