2019 Churchill Gricha

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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rich_n
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Joined: 10:59 Thu 23 May 2019

2019 Churchill Gricha

Post by rich_n »

Decant + 6 hours

A sample 375ml bottle included with a 3 pack of 2019 Churchill Quinta da Gricha bought through the Churchill Port.Club offer.

Dark purple, entirely opaque. This starts with a gentle floral red berry fruit note on the nose, but on the palate it's a bigger beast. The first sip brought punchy blueberries and redcurrants immediately followed by a wave of peppery spice and huge tannins and acidity that wash all the fruit away. There's a sour/tart note at the end too, but that isn't unpleasant. It's quite aggressive right now, but in the way that young vintage port has so far been in my experience.

Further exploration over the course of the next 2 hours revealed a depth of layers, the blueberry gained a more floral note, but layers of subtle of strawberries and caramel appeared as the tannic grip eased in the glass. I'm not experienced enough to know how well this will age but there's plenty of tannins and acidity to go around.

+1 day

Muted red berries and herbal notes on the nose. An initial sweet red fruit hit on entry to the palate is almost immediately swamped by a spicy red cherry note that's tart and a touch sour. Some bitter dark chocolate in the mid palate and then plenty of acidity and tannic grip late on along with the eucalyptus from yesterday. No blueberry until the very end of the finish.

+2 days

Well hello! All the fruit is back in force! Blueberries lead the charge, some strawberries in the mix with caramel and milk chocolate. Late there's spice, eucalyptus and tannic grip. This is marvellous today, a full bodied port that's providing a lot of joy.

+3 days

Similar to the previous day, but now with a huge layer of luscious caramel sits over everything. This might be as enjoyable as I've found this so far, it's better balanced and the slightly sour finish has receded.

This early sample is delicious, a very enjoyable young port.
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