DRT's review of 2007 cask samples

[DRT]

Here is my very belated review of the 2007 cask samples I tasted in May. Firstly, in case any of you are reading this, can I say a very big thank you to the shippers who very kindly sent me the samples that were tatsed by AHB, the group that attended the 2007 tasting at the Crusting Pipe in May and those that I tasted for this review.

Each sample was tasted a number of times from half bottles and all notes were taken completely blind. As I type this post I still have 14 almost empty half bottles wrapped in tinfoil in my fridge. I do not yet know which wine is which and will post all of my TN's here before un-wrapping the bottles later today.

Given the time that has passed between the tasting and the posting of these notes I have decided that each TN will be a set of verbatum notes taken at the time. I will not attempt to summarise these into a single note for fear of distorting the truth of what I thought at the time of each tasting. having typed some of these notes ready to post here it is quite amusing to see a number of glaring inconsistencies in the impressions noted in concecutive tastings of the same wine. So far as possible I tried to take each individual note without reference to previous impressions. This no doubt revealed my inability to take consistent notes but hopefully also demostrates how bloody difficult it is to taste these young wines.

I have to say I had great fun doing this. These really are great wines to taste and it would be very easy for me to establish a taste for very young vintage ports. I will confess now that I found it almost impossible to spit and of these but as I was only tasting 3 or 4 at each sitting that was only a problem when I decided to do all 14 in one afternoon

Overall I think 2007 has produced some excellent vintage ports. Only one of the samples didn't show well (at this point I don't know which it was) and many of those I have tasted appear to me to be wines with the structure, tannic backbone and acidity to give them a very good chance of a long life ahead. I think the others will prove to be excellent mid term drinkers in around 15 years from now.

I hope you enjoy reading these notes:

Warre
Quinta do Vesuvio
Dow
Noval Silval
Quinta da Romaniera
Graham
Quinta do Crasto
Gould campbell
Smith Woodhouse
Cockburn Quinta dos Canais
Niepoort
Quinta do Noval
Cockburn
Quarles Harris

Derek

[Glenn E.]

having typed some of these notes ready to post here it is quite amusing to see a number of glaring inconsistencies in the impressions noted in concecutive tastings of the same wine. So far as possible I tried to take each individual note without reference to previous impressions. This no doubt revealed my inability to take consistent notes but hopefully also demostrates how bloody difficult it is to taste these young wines.

Having now tasted a few cask samples myself - also blind - I don't find the inconsistencies strange at all. One of the samples I tasted changed dramatically over 5 days, to the point that if you'd served me day 1 and day 4 side-by-side I'd have sworn they were different Ports.

But yes, it's an extremely difficult process to taste these youngsters!

[RonnieRoots]

Great work Derek. And thanks to your generosity and determination to give as many people the chance to taste these samples as possible, I even got a taste of one of them!

[Andy Velebil]

Sheeeshhhhh, about time you got don't done and posted some notes...we've all been waiting

[Alex Bridgeman]

So in which order of yumminess would you put these ports? (Bearing in mind that you wouldn't score them.)

Which would you recommend as a "buy now" and which as a "buy later at a lower price"?

[DRT]

Which would you recommend as a "buy now" and which as a "buy later at a lower price"?

I'm not sure I will buy any at the release prices but if I do it will be the second string houses from the Symingtons. The QH, SW and GC were all excellent and relatively good value at the prices I have seen, especially if you wanted some young port to drink now.

The Noval was very impressive but I was a little surprised when I peeled the tinfoil off the Graham, Dow and Warre. None of these wowed me like those mentioned above did. Perhaps I am looking for the wrong characteristics in terms of what will make a great long-lived wine?

The only Crasto disappointed me but I think I might have had a bad bottle and will certainly taste it with an open mind when I taste it again next week.

Derek

[JacobH]

Thanks for your notes, Derek. It’s reassuring to see that your notes mostly matched the group-think of May 20th! Thanks again, too, for providing the samples for that tasting.

It is quite an interesting question as to whether the second-tier houses will show better in the long term. Of the blind samples we tried, I thought the Noval was the best, followed by the Quinta da Romaniera and then the Noval Silval but, had you pressed me into guessing the shipper, I think I would have guessed that the Silval was a major house (it just seemed a larger, more powerful and complex wine) and the Noval, being more approachable, would have been something like the Vargellas.

The only Crasto disappointed me but I think I might have had a bad bottle and will certainly taste it with an open mind when I taste it again next week.

Could I check how many bottles of Crasto you were sent and who they went to? On the 20th, I think we had (blind) a fresh bottle of it which was also very poor; though Alex subsequently wrote very highly of the sample he had at home. Also, I do wonder how much damage can occur to a bottle in such a short length of time; it will be interesting to see if your next experience is better.

[DRT]

I was given two bottles of Crasto. One was split into two half bottles which were subsequently tasted by AHB and myself. AHBs impressions of the other half of the bottle that I tasted are inexplicable to me

The bottle you tasted was indeed a freshly opened bottle.

[JacobH]

I was given two bottles of Crasto. One was split into two half bottles which were subsequently tasted by AHB and myself. AHBs impressions of the other half of the bottle that I tasted are inexplicable to me

The bottle you tasted was indeed a freshly opened bottle.

Hmm!perhaps the bottle half of these bottles are better than the top?

[DRT]

I was given two bottles of Crasto. One was split into two half bottles which were subsequently tasted by AHB and myself. AHBs impressions of the other half of the bottle that I tasted are inexplicable to me

The bottle you tasted was indeed a freshly opened bottle.

Hmm!perhaps the bottle half of these bottles are better than the top?

Or perhaps AHB has a preference for young, early maturing port? Maybe we should offer to swap his entire cellar for 100 cases of Crasto 2007?

[JacobH]

I was given two bottles of Crasto. One was split into two half bottles which were subsequently tasted by AHB and myself. AHBs impressions of the other half of the bottle that I tasted are inexplicable to me

The bottle you tasted was indeed a freshly opened bottle.

Hmm!perhaps the bottle half of these bottles are better than the top?

Or perhaps AHB has a preference for young, early maturing port? Maybe we should offer to swap his entire cellar for 100 cases of Crasto 2007?

Sounds sensible to me. If he [further redactions at the request of another member by PM]...

[RonnieRoots]

Of the blind samples we tried, I thought the Noval was the best, followed by the Quinta da Romaniera and then the Noval Silval

Christian Seely will be very happy with you.

[jdaw1]

Several of the UK-located TPFers have waded through these samples. Please could each/any of you write some thoughts on how to taste such samples. For what are you looking? What would be the ‘perfect’ cask sample?

[Axel P]

Thanks for the work and for sharing, Derek.

Axel

[Andy Velebil]

Food for thought...many of these cask samples were just that, samples from the cask that were bottled just for an early show and tell. While they are the final blends, there can be two or more different casks of them that have not yet all been blended together for a normal bottling run. So there can be ever so slight variations. Not to mention being "tanky" still, which gives off-notes to the Ports when smelling and tasting. Something you have to identify and work around at this very early stage.

No one said drinking cask samples was easy work.

[Alex Bridgeman]

I was given two bottles of Crasto. One was split into two half bottles which were subsequently tasted by AHB and myself. AHBs impressions of the other half of the bottle that I tasted are inexplicable to me

The bottle you tasted was indeed a freshly opened bottle.

I found the Crasto a particularly difficult sample to assess. Initially, I was very unimpressed by it; it seemed to be too light and one-dimensional. But then I thought back to some of the different styles of port I have tried at different times - especially ports which have low proportions of Touriga Nacional and higher proportions of Susao and Tinta Franca in them. From these, you get a very different style of port, more elegance and less brute power.

Once I had this in my mind, I was able to assess the Crasto very differently. It has some lovely floral elements to it which I quite enjoyed and had a very impressive length. I suspect that it will never be regarded as one of the top three from the vintage but I also suspect that it will be one of those ports which we all dismiss until served it blind in 15 years time. I don't have any reference points for the Crasto as I do not know the proportions of grapes which went into the final blend but I have always found the Ferreira wines to be elegant when mature. I'm hoping to be able to try the Ferreira 2007 soon and will be interested to find out how it compares with the Crasto.

[Glenn E.]

Several of the UK-located TPFers have waded through these samples. Please could each/any of you write some thoughts on how to taste such samples. For what are you looking? What would be the ‘perfect’ cask sample?

I've been doing some cask sample tasting with Roy here in Seattle, too. It's quite difficult and at least for me requires a lot of concentration. I have to divide up the "tasks" and do them separately across all the glasses before proceeding to the next task, and often have to compare and contrast the samples against one another to find anything worth noting at all.

I have no idea what a "perfect" cask sample would taste like. These are the first cask samples I've ever tasted so I have no way of knowing where they're going to end up. Some of them taste great now, but could easily fade as they mature. Others are extremely difficult to drink now, but will probably mature (in 30-40 years' time) into something magnificent. That said, I try to look for characteristics that remind me of other Ports I've tasted. And eventually I wrestle with a score for 5-10 minutes per glass, and hopefully come up with something that's useful.

[DRT]

About the initially vegetal smell of Canais, I’m sure it was a special temporary evolution of the wine in the bottle (reduction phenomena), probably due to the almost one third of Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) in the blend. It was the first time I incorporated Tinta Roriz in a Vintage blend. It was picked late, in the last week of the harvest , and the idea was to incorporate a slightly more ‟spicy/black berries fruity‟ character in to the blend.