ThePortForum.com

Monday 24th April 2023, in the Boot & Flooger, the theme having shifted from “Bring a Bottle” to a reprise of a tasting thirty years before.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1963 Taylor;
• 1963 Graham;
• 1963 Martinez;
• 1970 Taylor;
• 1970 Graham;
• 1970 Cockburn;
• 1970 Noval;
• 1970 Dow;
• 1970 Gould Campbell;
• 1970 Unknown;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1992 Graham Malvedos;
• 2011 Fortnum & Mason (Niepoort);
• 1975 Chiltern Valley Syrah= †;
• Placemats;
• Food order;
• Planning and arrangements.

Fortnum & Mason 2011 by Niepoort, then costing £39.95, and bought as an experiment. Dark dark dark red, 95% opaque. edge of shutting down. Blackcurrants, and lots of sweet fruit.

80% opacity, deep red-purple. Lovely concentrated fruit. Smooth, rich, full, faint tannin, concentrated fruit.

jdaw1 wrote: ↑17:14 Mon 29 May 2023 Fortnum & Mason 2011 by Niepoort, then costing £39.95, and bought as an experiment. Dark dark dark red, 95% opaque. edge of shutting down. Blackcurrants, and lots of sweet fruit.

Any thoughts on this being a regular botteling by Niepoort, Morgadia da Calçada or something different alltogether?

I know that the 2000 and 2003 Fortnum & Mason VPs were the Secundum blend — the bottles had corks that were branded as such and the bottles were stencilled with the name of the wine under the F&M label.

No idea about the 2011 Port. Niepoort had stopped making the Secundum blend by that vintage.

Allright, I brought a few bottles home from my recent trip to London, thinking it was a Niepoort regular botteling was probably foolish of me. Still since I also own some regular 2011 Niepoorts, I'll be fun to try them next to each other.

If I recall correctly, the Fortnum & Mason 2011 is in the traditional Niepoort shaped bottle. This wasn’t used for the Morgadio de Calçada Port (which uses a Bordeaux-style bottle). Since Niepoort didn’t make the Secundum blend in 2011, I think there is a very, very good chance of you having bought the regular blend.

If you have the bottles at home, you might consider soaking off the F&M label to see what’s stencilled on the bottle…