Hardy's Whiskers Blake Tawny Port

[SushiNorth]

Awful awful awful australian port. I think they intentionally madeirized it because the stuff was closer to cream sherry than it was to port. This was caramel candy, with heat. Nothing further to say about this failed $16 experiment.

[mosesbotbol]

Yuck

In my mid 20's, I had a roommate that drank a bottle of that about every night! They use to package it with two port glasses (very small ones), and after a year, we had so many port glasses I could not contain them all.

This stuff is way to sweet and sugary for me.

[TBird]

wow, this isn't good. i just bought a bunch of them. the WS 94 points and $10.99 price tag was just too tempting.

[g-man]

you've got a sweet tooth you may like it better.

I personally find the sweetness unbalancing. It's like aspartame sweet

[mosesbotbol]

Just awful stuff...

[TBird]

i am prepared for the flaming , but i finally had a bottle of this and found it far from awful. it shouldn't be labeled "port", perhaps simply "dessert wine" would apply, but i noticed absolutely no heat on it's 18%, and found alot of fruit in there. from carmely dates/figs to cherried almonds. it had a nice light red/slightly brown color. about it's only fault (and it's a BIG one) was the saccharin/artificial sweetner aftertaste. where does that come from?

i'm not gonna sit down with another whole bottle(plus a bottle of tempranillo ) again, but will easily serve it at a party where not everyone knows(or cares) about wine/port and i guarantee it'll be a hit.

flame on...

[g-man]

i am prepared for the flaming , but i finally had a bottle of this and found it far from awful. it shouldn't be labeled "port", perhaps simply "dessert wine" would apply, but i noticed absolutely no heat on it's 18%, and found alot of fruit in there. from carmely dates/figs to cherried almonds. it had a nice light red/slightly brown color. about it's only fault (and it's a BIG one) was the saccharin/artificial sweetner aftertaste. where does that come from?

i'm not gonna sit down with another whole bottle(plus a bottle of tempranillo ) again, but will easily serve it at a party where not everyone knows(or cares) about wine/port and i guarantee it'll be a hit.

flame on...

it's that artificial sweetner taste that REALLy gets to me. artificial sweetner/aspartame. I like a real tawny port to regular Coke to the aussie tawnies as diet pepsi. Coke's got a fuller body, spicier, richer vanilla, and diet pepsi, while too has pretty good tastes, gets boggled down by that fake sugar sensation when you drink too much.

But they do have a place in my cellar and like you said, I too serve it at parties where not everyone knows (or cares) about port. If they're going to call it robitussin, I'd rather they say it to this then the real stuff =)

[Alex Bridgeman]

i am prepared for the flaming , but i finally had a bottle of this and found it far from awful. it shouldn't be labeled "port", perhaps simply "dessert wine" would apply, but i noticed absolutely no heat on it's 18%, and found alot of fruit in there. from carmely dates/figs to cherried almonds. it had a nice light red/slightly brown color. about it's only fault (and it's a BIG one) was the saccharin/artificial sweetner aftertaste. where does that come from?

i'm not gonna sit down with another whole bottle(plus a bottle of tempranillo ) again, but will easily serve it at a party where not everyone knows(or cares) about wine/port and i guarantee it'll be a hit.

flame on...

You won't get flamed here It's always interesting to see a contrary view. I've never tried any of these "ports" so it has been useful to see both sides of the coin.

[Glenn E.]

i am prepared for the flaming , but i finally had a bottle of this and found it far from awful. it shouldn't be labeled "port", perhaps simply "dessert wine" would apply, but i noticed absolutely no heat on it's 18%, and found alot of fruit in there. from carmely dates/figs to cherried almonds. it had a nice light red/slightly brown color. about it's only fault (and it's a BIG one) was the saccharin/artificial sweetner aftertaste. where does that come from?

That's pretty much my opinion of that style of wine also. I have yet to find an Aussie product that even comes close to Port, but several of them are pretty darn good dessert wines.

The artificial sweetener taste would kill this particular one for me, though, as I'm mildly allergic to Nutrasweet (aspartame). That makes me rather sensitive to the taste, so I doubt I could drink anything with that kind of an aftertaste.