Many thanks to Phil for organising and also to those who assisted with decanting/pouring. Perhaps only one or two weaker showings on the night, and many fine ports. A great privilege to have Sophia, Philip and Kit in attendance and willing to share many little bits of history surrounding some of the ports.
On the side by sides for the '60, '63 and '70 I thought Rosa won on all of these, but they were all close. Indeed we debated whether in each case (especially the '60) they might simply be the same wine. Special mention to the RV72 which was by far the best '72 I have tasted.
I hope everyone attending enjoyed this as much as I did. Having Sophia, Philip and Kit join us meant we were able to hear more of the history and in particular for this tasting the interaction between QdlR and the RV port production, which was excellent.
Per the voting just posted above, WOTN was clearly the RV27 receiving points from everyone and miles ahead of the other wines; second place went to QdlR70 and third to the RV47 with the RV72 just behind in fourth, those four wines well ahead of the others. Two faulty wines - the RV45 (very light in colour and taste) and the RV42 (very sharp, burnt rubber); I also thought the RV47 had a hint of TCA, noting a "slight dry corkiness" to the taste - but this was not something noted by others, and indeed the wine scored very highly overall, so perhaps just a dirty/dusty glass for me.
My personal favourite was the QdlR70, just ahead of the fabulous RV27 (thanks to Sophia and Tom respectively); since I had tasted the Qdlr70 once before where it had not shown as well, this was a great bottle. I also placed the QdlR ahead of the RV on all three of the comparative vintages, though the difference was not large in any case. I was very surprised not to have placed the RV63 higher, as this had an absolutely fabulous nose during decant.
The RV72 was perhaps the surprise of the tasting, not only being the best '72 most if not all of us had tasted, but almost making a podium place against some other excellent old wines; very impressive and thank you NAC for the bottle; indeed, my thanks to all who supplied wines for the tasting, as well as to those who assisted with the decanting and pouring.
