1997 Morgan

[Alex Bridgeman]

Part of a range of Morgan ports made available by Christie's for buyers to taste prior to the fine wine sale of Thursday 16 November 2006.

Deep and opaque, the colour of morello cherries. Typical "young port" nose of blueberry juice with the spirit just showing through. Sweet into the mouth - but there is an odd vegetal tone underneath the sweetness. The spirit is hot and pronounced, but perhaps time will integrate it better, I don't have the tasting experience to be able to predict this. Eventually the wines settles down in the mouth to bring a well structured fruit bomb with a nice acidic backbone. Interestingly, I couldn't find the tannins in this wine. Aftertaste is a little slow to develop but eventually arrives as a fruity cocktail of cherries, raisins and cedar wood. Perhaps a little short to be ideal. 5-7 or 87/100.