1977 Dow

[DRT]

Tasted at this offline on 20th Nov 2008.

Dow 1977 - even after a 15 hour decant, this was still too disjointed to be showing at its best. I guessed this to be a Dow 1970, so I'm not too ashamed of that one. This will be a great port but needs another 5-10 years to be worth taking one out of the cellar.

[DRT]

I think I was already tired and emotional when I wrote: "Fresh herbs, smooth, syrupy, effin' gorgeous"

[Alex Bridgeman]

Derek kindly gave me a little snifter of this to take home with me, whereupon it was put in storage and forgotten about until today. Tasted about 3 days after decanting, this was splendid. The nose had opened up to show lots of sweet, ripe plums. Still showing the reserved dryness of a Dow, this is now full of fruit and with a lovely mixture of ripe sweetness yet also with some delicious bitterness - like biting into a ripe plum with a slightly bitter skin. But the highlight of this port is its incredible aftertaste that is a mix of sweet braised plum with bitter chocolate shavings all over the plate and which just goes on and on.

I only have one of these bottles tucked away and this showing tells me that it should remain tucked away for a good few years yet. This was much better today than when poured after "only" 15 hours of decanting. 93/100.