1977 Messias Colheita (bottled 2006)

[Alex Bridgeman]

Another cellar defender bites the dust.

Bottled in 2006. Decanted from a bottle sealed with a short, driven cork that was branded only with the name "Messias" and a rather impressive crest; the bottle contained only a very small amount of very fine sediment. Very pale orange in appearance (not disimilar in colour to the Offley 1975 that I drank recently) and slightly cloudy. An attractive nose of toffee apples and vanilla pods. Dried dates on the palate, with some lovely biting apple juice acidity. Lots of fruit on the palate, which leads beautifully into the finish - which is very long and goes through several phases. The first phase is of dates and fruit; followed by a burst of heat from the acidity and the spirit before a very, very long sweet brown sugar balanced by a pleasant nut-skin bitterness. Very pleasant port, more enjoyable to my palate than most colheita ports. 85/100. Drunk 4 Apr 2010 after 4 hours decanting.