1977 Dow

[jdaw1]

Part of a vertical of Dow, and two bottles of Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, on Tuesday 7th September 2010, at The Crusting Pipe. Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Placemats;
• Dow 1958;
• Dow 1963;
• Dow 1966;
• Dow 1970;
• Dow 1972;
• Dow 1977;
• Dow 1980;
• Dow 1983;
• Dow 1985;
• Dow 1991;
• Sandeman 1982 (a late addition, replacing a Dow 1994, a Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira 2006, and a Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira 2008);
• Planning and arrangements.

[angeleyes]

From memory (left the tasting notes at the table again): Corked, but lightly so - but nevertheless took away what might have been. Would make an excellent ingredient to onion gravy or port and cherry jam sauce.

[JacobH]

My tasting notes for the Dow 1977 read as follows:

Completely oxidised; although this was once a Vintage Port, I think it would have easily passed muster as a Colheita. A very nice tawny colour, with a bit of fire. Perfectly drinkable for what it was. (Drunk: TPF offline 20v2009.)
Weak bottle. (Drunk: TPF tasting with Oscar Quevedo 11ii2010.)
Dark and complex with good fruit. Unfortunately slightly corked. (Drunk: TCP 20iv2010.)
Corked, again. (Drunk: Dow Tasting, 7ix2010)

There is obviously something very wrong with this wine. My failure rate is now, I believe, 4 out of 5 which makes drinking this Port a little too expensive for my taste, if one has to work through most of a case to find a good bottle!

[DRT]

I have a similar experience with this wine, which is very disheartening because when it is good it is very, very good. Seems to be a similar situation to Cockburn 1983

[AHB]

Deep in colour, slightly darker than the 1972 shown alongside. Perhaps slightly corked nose, certainly very flat; others seemed to notice TCA more than me. Sweet initial impact, little fruit and mostly just flavours are just bland jelly-bean sweetness. Faint tannins and good levels of acidity. A hot aftertaste, which disappears quickly, perhaps with a slight hint of cardboard at the end of the finish. The lack of impact from this wine does imply that it is corked. 85/100. Drunk 7 September 2010.