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Consumed on 20 May 2009 at The Crusted Pipe in a "bring a bottle to share" and 2007 Horizontal offline.

One of 5 samples of the 2007 Vintage tasted in the mini-offline. The tasting was carried out "double blind" (unusually in the scientific sense, as the test administrator, AHB, did not know what he was administrating to us). Hopefully Derek still has the key of which letters was allocated to which shipper .

The original title of this thread is/was 2007 "C" Vintage Port. Once the shipper is disclosed, it will be renamed.

C was the most interesting of the Ports. Not the best to drink on the night, nor the dark tannic monster that one would expect a very young Vintage Port to be. One the nose the was tobacco and a certain spicyness. This was followed up, in the mouth, by more complex flavours including a fair bit of rhubarb. Slightly less tannic than D, it was an interesting Port which I look forward to revisiting when it is more mature.

niepoort, that rhubarb is certainly throwing me off tho but I Can kinda see it with the niepoort.

or quite possibly like Glenn's Kopke.

Another portion which I can enjoy with WS1 on my balcony from a very small bottle.

The taste is even better. I like this stuff. Warre? Long aftertaste.

Dirk

Nose: Good but rather mono-dimensional

Colour: Dark, but not impressively so

Palate: Good to a point, some distinctive traits

Conclusion: If this is Vesuvio, then they have done better

Best guess: Vesuvio, but I hope I'm wrong

Tom

Amongst the darkest red in colour terms of the 5 ports. On the nose I noted strawberries and to tase, rhubarb, wich was a general theme I noticed amongst all 5 samples. Very tannic and fruitty generallt. I wrote "drinkable now" and that I would buy this.

This was one of the two samples which I took home after the tasting. Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to try it until now; though it was well-sealed in one of Julian’s sample bottles. Apologies for not being able to properly fulfil the tasting requirements!

144+, this has mellowed a touch compared to last week. The nose is still very interesting; I still get quite a bit of tobacco. It’s a bit more explicitly grapy on the nose than I remember from the first tasting. In the mouth, I notice how soft, particularly in terms of the tannins, it is compared to the 2007s I tried in Oporto. There’s also a bit more acid, perhaps a slight touch of orange; with the tobacco still being there on the edge of the mouth. Not one of the huge 2007s, like the Cockburn or ‟D”, but perhaps a bit bigger than some of the other samples.

I’m really not sure what this could be. The acidity interests me, it was one of the things we talked about at Niepoort; whether it could compensate for a lack of tannins. (Not that I think this is Niepoort).

As far as I can tell, this is the cheapest of the 2007s on the market. I think I might drop into Uncorked on my way home to place an order

If I understand correctly, the Silval is intended as a younger drinking port? That being the case, my notes seem to make sense! I have previously avoided Silval but may now try some.

with regards to sample C I liked most of this port that it became better with time

rubarb Fruit, not really great, a bit short. Over the next couple of days this got a bit better, developed loads of Chassis aromas and also quite a nice length. Still more a wine than a Port though