I've written tasting notes on just under 4,600 different bottles of port. In that time I have only given two ports a perfect score, considering the wine I drank to be impossible to be bettered. They were the two tasting notes Old Bridge has identified.
Both were just astonishing. The 1963 Nacional was an ex-cellars bottle drunk in a line-up which consisted of Croft 1927 (an excellent bottle, 99 points), Croft 1945 (also fabulous at 99 points), Dow 1896 (slightly odd bottle, 90 points), Fonseca 1948 (terrific, but only 97 points), Nacional 1967 (very good, but only 92 points), Nacional 2003 (94 points — will be fabulous in 30 years) and a bottle of Taylor 1945 (from the cellars of the Duke of Buccleaugh and badly spoiled by some form of bacterial infection). That was one hack of a tasting. That was a tasting held in the dining room of Quinta do Noval with a few of the longer serving members of TPF in attendance. The theme of the tasting was "8 Ports to Try Before You Die".
I've had Noval 1931 a few times, and it is always very impressive and quite delicious. However, that particular bottle was showed the best I have ever encountered. It was bottled by Justerini & Brooks and was opened alongside bottles of Cockburn 1908 (93 points), Graham 1942 (98 points), Graham 1948 (97 points), the first of my magnums of Quinto do Noval 1927 (99 points, the partner to this magnum being the one opened at the Factory House in June 2017 as part of our 10th anniversary celebration), Quinta do Noval Nacional 1931 (90 points, spoiled by bottle stink), Taylor 1927 (95 points) and a bottle of Warre 1922 (97 points).
Top Ports in 2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
2025: Quevedo 1972 Colheita, b.2024. Just as good as Niepoort 1900!
AHB wrote: ↑12:35 Sun 29 Oct 2017
I've written tasting notes on just under 4,600 different bottles of port. In that time I have only given two ports a perfect score, considering the wine I drank to be impossible to be bettered. They were the two tasting notes Old Bridge has identified.
Both were just astonishing. The 1963 Nacional was an ex-cellars bottle drunk in a line-up which consisted of Croft 1927 (an excellent bottle, 99 points), Croft 1945 (also fabulous at 99 points), Dow 1896 (slightly odd bottle, 90 points), Fonseca 1948 (terrific, but only 97 points), Nacional 1967 (very good, but only 92 points), Nacional 2003 (94 points — will be fabulous in 30 years) and a bottle of Taylor 1945 (from the cellars of the Duke of Buccleaugh and badly spoiled by some form of bacterial infection). That was one hack of a tasting. That was a tasting held in the dining room of Quinta do Noval with a few of the longer serving members of TPF in attendance. The theme of the tasting was "8 Ports to Try Before You Die".
I've had Noval 1931 a few times, and it is always very impressive and quite delicious. However, that particular bottle was showed the best I have ever encountered. It was bottled by Justerini & Brooks and was opened alongside bottles of Cockburn 1908 (93 points), Graham 1942 (98 points), Graham 1948 (97 points), the first of my magnums of Quinto do Noval 1927 (99 points, the partner to this magnum being the one opened at the Factory House in June 2017 as part of our 10th anniversary celebration), Quinta do Noval Nacional 1931 (90 points, spoiled by bottle stink), Taylor 1927 (95 points) and a bottle of Warre 1922 (97 points).
I am impressed. And jealous of you, AHB, for having tasted such Ports.
However, this saturday we had our annual ....... party, and I got a present on friday very much relating to what we ate.
What was the present?
I know we essentially let this thread die, but a quiz question occurred to me today which I couldn't resist asking, especially for the mathematicians amongst us.
A simple question. What is the next number in this series, and why?
88, 92, 95, 97, 99, 102, 107...
Top Ports in 2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
2025: Quevedo 1972 Colheita, b.2024. Just as good as Niepoort 1900!
Glenn E. wrote: ↑01:12 Thu 04 Jul 2019
If Phil is wrong, that's an astounding coincidence.
If those numbers don't relate to those years I would agree; though the reason itself might not be quite right - rather than general declaration years, it might relate to a specific producer, or to a specific tasting that Alex has/will attend this year, for example.
Andy Velebil wrote: ↑00:21 Fri 13 Mar 2020Quinta d. Popa?
Naughty. You aren’t allowed two consecutive guesses. That isn’t the game. You can’t guess yet.
Maybe I could give the clue that if somebody else had guessed this, it would have been wrong. But you can’t guess.
jdaw1 wrote: ↑00:57 Wed 08 Apr 2009{If you get it right, you then have to pose an equally useless but guessable question. If you guess wrong, you can’t guess again until somebody else has had a guess, or until a new question is posed (which would happen because a previous guess is marked ‘correct’).}
