1988 Warre Colheita

[Alex Bridgeman]

This is a beautiful, clear and sparkling shade of red mahogany, turning slightly orange on the rim. The nose is dominated by brown sugar and some almond paste. In the mouth the initial impression is of brown sugar syrup, with quite a thick texture, and candied raisins but the in the mid-palate comes some eye-wateringly intense lemon juice that sears the tongue for a while. Eventually this subsides and a delicate turkish delight nuance starts to appear. After even longer in the mouth a coffe tone starts to interact with the other flavours. The aftertaste starts with quite a painful burn of alcohol, which leaves the mouth tingling for quite a long time before fading very slowly to leave a coffee fudge aftertaste.

I add the disclaimer that I am not a great fan of colheita ports and do not enjoy this greatly. I can't offer a score on the Uncle Tom scale but would suggest that this is probably marginally better for current enjoyment than the 2001 Dow LBV that I recently posted on - but without the room for further improvement in the bottle. 84/100.

Tasted from a freshly opened bottle after 1 hour of decanting.