Decanted for 2 hours before tasting and drunk on 30/1/08.
Very pale colour, tawny looking, distinctly orange with a pale green rim. On the nose I picked up violets and some unintegrated alcohol.
This port had a neutral entry with a good acidic structure and flavours of barley sugars. Orange peel and grapefruit juice came through in the mid-palate.
The aftertaste was of moderate length and was just like sucking on a barley sugar.
A rather unremarkable port that wasn't bad, just old. 1/0 on the Uncle Tom scale or 86/100.
1963 Royal Oporto
- Alex Bridgeman
- Fonseca 1966
- Posts: 15634
- Joined: 12:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
- Location: Berkshire, UK
1963 Royal Oporto vintage port
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!
2025: Quevedo 1972 Colheita, b.2024. Just as good as Niepoort 1900!
- Alex Bridgeman
- Fonseca 1966
- Posts: 15634
- Joined: 12:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
- Location: Berkshire, UK
We did all agree that this port was showing the same sort of "brown sugar" flavours that you find in an old Cockburn. I must admit that I was not surprised that a lot of the guesses were for old Cockburn.
Alex
Alex
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!
2025: Quevedo 1972 Colheita, b.2024. Just as good as Niepoort 1900!
- KillerB
- Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
- Posts: 2425
- Joined: 21:09 Wed 20 Jun 2007
- Location: Sky Blue City, England
I quite liked this on initial tasting: looked like barley sugar, smelled like barley sugar and tasted like barley sugar. Very old looking so no chance of guessing the year. Sadly, it just got a little boring after a while, especially as we had Warre and Martinez to play with.
I think my guess was Smith Woodhouse 1947, another Port that I've never tasted before.
I think my guess was Smith Woodhouse 1947, another Port that I've never tasted before.
Port is basically a red drink
Links to the other ports from the line-up:
- Review of the evening as a whole;
- 1963 Borges;
- 1963 Royal Oporto;
- 1970 Warre;
- 1983 Harvey's (Martinez);
- 1985 Martinez.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
Ernest H. Cockburn