1970 Taylor

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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1970 Taylor

Post by jdaw1 »

Last edited by jdaw1 on 17:44 Sat 16 Feb 2008, edited 1 time in total.
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jdaw1
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1970 Taylor

Post by jdaw1 »

1970 Taylor, consumed Thursday 14th February 2008, and from the collection of Jay, who did double-duty as our excellent host.

Anyway, this Taylor 1970 was a perfect colour: dark red throughout, no brown nor purple, and clear. Being one of the last few to be tasted I have no nose note (or maybe the TCA suppressed the bouquet), but to taste rich smooth, no heat, great stickiness, long mouthfeel containing pepper and tandoori. Fantastic port: 9/9 in Uncle T’s system.

Also, when compared to the lighter Taylor Vargellas, a demonstration of the triumph of good blending.

But AHB and RAH both thought it utterly spoiled by being corked.

Very interesting. I knew that I am quite insensitive to TCA.
Wikipedia, on the subject of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_taint]Cork taint[/url] wrote:The chief cause of cork taint is the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in the wine. Corked wine containing TCA has a characteristic odor, variously described as resembling a moldy newspaper, wet dog, or damp basement. In almost all cases of corked wine the wine's native aromas are reduced significantly, and a very tainted wine is completely undrinkable (though harmless). While the human threshold for detecting TCA is measured in the single-digit parts per trillion, this can vary by several orders of magnitude depending on an individual's sensitivity.
Score me for some of those orders of magnitude.
Last edited by jdaw1 on 00:30 Mon 18 Feb 2008, edited 1 time in total.
Roy Hersh
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Post by Roy Hersh »

Upon first sniff I came close to wretching when the extremely badly corked 1970 almost knocked me out. Having a few beginners at the tasting at Jay's home, I was not surprised that a few folks were unable to detect the distinct TCA flaw, although at least 5 of us did.

It stunk so badly I could not even put it in my mouth at first and for a while thereafter. But after going around the table and getting to Julian and hearing him exclaim that it was the best Port of the night (and there were some gems to say the last) even after hearing others saying it was corked ... AND giving this a 97 point score ... not only was I blown away by this, but I then had to try the wine.

I will be as nice as possible and say that this was every bit as unpleasant on the palate unless one can totally ignore a very badly corked and musty drink. To me there was no way to put a score to this and I just wrote n/r. I must believe that maybe Julian had a lot of cheese to eat directly before tasting this wine. :oops:
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jdaw1
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I think that I am impervious to TCA

Post by jdaw1 »

Roy Hersh wrote:I must believe that maybe Julian had a lot of cheese to eat directly before tasting this wine.
No. No cheese until I had tasted all the ports. I think that I am impervious to TCA, and that Roy is very sensitive. Lucky me, in some sense.
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RonnieRoots
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Post by RonnieRoots »

Pity that it was corked. I wish I was as insensitive to that smell as you Julian!
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