1963 Krohn

[jdaw1]

To celebrate the Quinquagenary of AHB, he arranged a horizontal of 1963s in Wokingham at The Cantley House Hotel (evenings of Friday 11^th and Saturday 12^th October 2013) and The Walter Arms (lunch on Saturday 12^th), and two evening Champagne tastings for our better halves. Sadly the venue was not able to accommodate all he would have liked to have invited. Diaries had been blocked since early 2012, and bottles had been gathered for most of a decade before that. A splendid weekend indeed.

Partial links:
• Review of the event as a whole, which starts with a full set of links;
• Placemats (and parameters by which constructed).

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

Some links:
• Review which includes links to the Champagnes; Placemats and their Parameters;
• Fri evening 1963s: VS QH GC Ck G | Kh Pç Mg Av F | RV Rs S Dl Cn;
• Sat aftern’n 1963s: Sb RVi RCV Ad RO | Dm BBR T Cr Ni | Mk Fd O Mz;
• Sat evening 1963s: MC W D N NN | A B&I Df PS Cv | GB Cá CáF B Fr;
• Others: 1863 Burmester, 1977 Warre (tappitt hen), Martinez Crusted bottled 1973, 1966 Château Batailley (magnum).

[jdaw1]

Kh63. Dark red, 50% opaque. Nose I wrote only ‟best nose so far”. Taste unusual, but lovely. Big sweet dark fruit, marred with something grassy or arboreal. Perfect balance. Extremely long really very very long. Fabulous.

And then it weakened. Cedar appeared later, the Port losing power and becoming delicate. Even later it really fell apart.

This was a voting problem. As it was at 9½pm, it was WOTN. By midnight, it wasn’t even in the medal table. what to do? I decided to vote ‘as of 9:30’, so gave it first place. But one could quite reasonably have voted ‘as of midnight’, and given it nothing, as the others did.

[Axel P]

My second TN from the weekend goes to the Port which I surprised me the most as Krohn being much more known for outstanding Colheitas than for Vintage Ports:

Dark red colour with slight brown reflections. Malt and Chocolate in the bouquet, secondary cherries and raspberries. The palate shows the same fruity character and some medicinal notes, very soft and well structured. Long and very good balanced in the aftertaste. 18

Bottle came directly from the W&K cellar.

Axel

[DRT]

Floral nose. Dark, big, with lots of dark fruit. Lovely sweet mid palate and a very long mouthwatering finish. Grade A Port.

Later I noted “stewed prunes”.

[WS1]

This port seemed to have decayed over time in the glass. I tried my glass quite late so my tasting note characterizes this as an OK port but not great.

colour: red ruby, good rim; nose: coughing pastilles with a notch "oldish smell"; taste: suggery dessert, pudding port and a bit dull.

[uncle tom]

Good colour, but rather oxidised and not very nice, with burnt overtones.

[Andy Velebil]

1963 Krohn Vintage Port
A sweet cola smell. A soft palate a touch yeasty, tawny and dried fruit at the same time. This appears to have a touch of the Peter Pan syndrome. It’s grown old without growing up. A touch clipped on the finish but still pleasant.
88 Points

[Alex Bridgeman]

Mid red-brown with an odd, very dark brown rim; 70% opaque. Bruised plums show on the nose—not particularly attractive, lots of rosemary oil. Very sweet on the palate, with treacle and bitter orange. Note an attractive palate. Long aftertaste, big flavours of burnt toast and strawberry jam leaving a very sweet finish. As a port, this lacks a little balance and focus. 86/100. Drunk 11-Oct-13. Decanted 6½ hours.