1963 Sandeman

[uncle tom]

An odd bottle of no known provenance, decanted Dec 23rd.

What a hot tired dismal wine this was, both at D + 6hrs and again at D + 30hrs, when I had hoped it might have come round a little - but in vain..

(it was then drunk out of its misery!)

Somewhere in the ruins of this juice, their had probably been a decent bottle once..

One of the least impressive bottles of the year - no real enjoyment to be found..

Score 1-0

Tom

[JacobH]

Tom,

Was this bottle in reasonable condition? Reviews of this wine seem to vary quite a lot and I wonder whether there is any correlation between the condition of the cork or where it was bottled and how well it has matured?

[Alex Bridgeman]

Sandeman (and, indeed, Noval) are in my experience very variable ports from the 1963 vintage. I've had great bottles of both and also bottles of both that performed the way that Tom has just described. In my experience, it's difficult to predict how any particular bottle will perform.

[uncle tom]

Jacob,

It was English bottled, level VTS and had a sound cork, so no major cause for concern..

Tom

[DRT]

It was English bottled

By whom?

[KillerB]

We had a great bottle of this at the October off-line at The Bell - did anybody take any notes at all?

[DRT]

We had a great bottle of this at the October off-line at The Bell - did anybody take any notes at all?

Wasn't that a Sandeman 66?

[Andy Velebil]

We had a great bottle of this at the October off-line at The Bell - did anybody take any notes at all?

Wasn't that a Sandeman 66?

It was the 1960 Sandeman VP, bottled by BB&R (as was stamped on the cork, yet had no mention of that on the label which was odd). It appeared to have been a fairly recent release, possibly from their collection if they have one, as it had a newer label and the wax top didn't look all that old. Or it could have been bought back by the Sandeman company some years ago and recently re-released. Either way it was stunningly good bottle considering most 1960's are on the downhill decline now.

[Roy Hersh]

Actually, Alex K. is correct. We did have the 1963 Sandeman and it was the third bottle in our lineup, which followed directly after the 1927 Fonseca. The 1960 Sandeman VP which we also enjoyed that night at The Bell, was served 7th of the 12 notes I have.

My notes on the Sandeman 1963 for that evening reflect a very good showing. Dark ruby in color, herbal/minty, some strawberry and spirit on the nose as well. At peak but not over-the-hill like other bottles in recent years. This was a BB&R bottling. I gave it 91 points and blathered on a bit more in my notebook.

[uncle tom]

It was English bottled

By whom?

Don't know, but was in the typical English green glass '60's bottle.

Tom