NV Taylor Ruby (Select Reserve)

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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KillerB
Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
Posts: 2425
Joined: 22:09 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Sky Blue City, England

NV Taylor Ruby (Select Reserve)

Post by KillerB »

Rank

I bought this from Morrison's today in the vain hope that at £6.49 I may have sought out a bargain. Matched up against a similarly priced Cockburn's, with an equally terrible name and the Dow junk Ruby, I assumed it must be the best of a bad bunch of nasty rubies. Having had 'Renown' before, I knew what I was up against and a Cockburn's that is lower than Special Reserve did not appeal.

However, this ranks well below either of those non-entity Ports, into the realms of really dreadful. I can only hope that I had a bad bottle - it had no noticeable fruit, a terrible mouthfeel and an aftertaste that made a previous 'wasabi' jibe seem unfit. I could detect no genuine fault (I maybe wrong), just a rotten bottle of ruby, possibly the worst. Not sure it's good enough for cooking - I buy pretty good mince, you know.
Port is basically a red drink
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Re: NV Taylor Select Reserve

Post by RonnieRoots »

I also made this mistake once. Only once...

BTW, I have a bottle of Cockburn Ruby here that I use for cooking. When I threw some in a hot pan yesterday to make a sauce, the smell specificly reminded me of denatured alcohol. Not very nice.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: NV Taylor Select Reserve

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

I opened a bottle of Cockburn Special Reserve a few days ago. It had been in the bottle for about 30 years. It was quite enjoyable and if I had the chance to drink another bottle, I would!
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Re: NV Taylor Select Reserve

Post by RonnieRoots »

Wasn't that from the time when Cockburn decided not to declare vintage port because they wanted to save their quality grapes for the Special Reserve? It woudn't surprise me if the blend nowadays is slightly different... :wink:
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Joined: 16:37 Sat 03 May 2008
Location: London, UK
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Re: NV Taylor Select Reserve

Post by JacobH »

I don’t understand why the Port producers make such a complex tangle of brands of Ruby Ports. I recently tried Taylor’s First Estate Ruby Reserve which I thought was quite solid with loads of fruit. It was perhaps even better than their LBV. But how is the customer supposed to know that it is a different product from this one? Especially as I imagine both are bottled in the black bottle / black label combo that Taylor’s goes in for for their cheaper products.
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