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1977s were tasted by a strict subset of the obvious folks, on Tuesday 11^th June 2024, at the Boot & Flogger, as arranged by Martin Coulson.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Tasting notes:
  • 1977 Warre;
  • 1977 Dow;
  • 1977 Graham;
  • 1977 Gould Campbell;
  • 1977 Smith Woodhouse;
  • 1977 Berry’s Own Selection ≈ Quarles Harris;
  • 1977 Offley Boa Vista;
  • 1977 Ferreira;
  • 1977 Sandeman;
  • 1977 Fonseca Panascal;
  • 1977 Fonseca;
  • 1977 Taylor;
  • 1977 Croft;
  • 1977 Delaforce;
  • 1977 Morgan;
  • 1977 Ramos Pinto;
  • 1977 Niepoort;
  • 1977 Royal Oporto;
  • 1977 Morano;
  • 1977 Ducal;
• Placemats;
• Food order;
• Planning and arrangements.

Thanks to Martin for arranging a most interesting horizontal. Graham, Smith Woodhouse, Gould Campbell (magnum), BBR, Fonseca, Taylor, Niepoort all good. I have a fair bit of Fonseca and Warre and am happy to own them. But the only ones of which I may now buy more are Taylor, Smith Woodhouse, and (if I can find any) Niepoort.

Enjoyed this tasting very much and have added my brief notes.

Found that the nose on many of the wines were very muted and took a long time in the glass to evolve.
I wonder if some bottles were under-decanted?

This was a great tasting of 1977 Vintage Ports - none of them stank of TCA. I am coming to the conclusion that my introduction to this vintage 20 years ago was just unfortunate. At one point I was running at a spoilage rate of about 50%. Looking through my tasting notes I can see that now down to 10-15%.

This tasting also led me to a conclusion, that 1977 is just starting to go through a closed phase like 1960 was 15 years ago. Many of the wines were delicious, but a fair number of them were disjointed and out of balance, nothing like as delicious and finessed as they were a couple of years ago.

Maybe, as Neil suggests, some were underdecanted. Or maybe some need a couple of years of slumber to wake up with a clear vision of what they want to be.

That was a very interesting tasting. Thank you for inviting me.

Several broad observations.
• There is much very drinkable Port in the 1977.
• But greats, to be wistfully recalled aeons later, not so much. Indeed, not at all.
• F77 used to be a great. It was the biggest of this vintage, and of the of the near-sequences of Fonseca stunners: ’63, ’66, ’70, ’77, ’85. Where did it go?

I am very pleased to have attended.

Many thanks to Martin for the organisation and efforts on the night. What to take away?
- the ports are mature (nothing wrong with that!)
- the evening served as a reminder to me that '77 is not anywhere near as deep as '70, neither in declarations, nor in ports that reliably perform well
- on this occasion, some of the big boys were not on best form

As Alex has noted above, perhaps some of these are in a slumber? Let's see in 3-4 years from now. Perhaps the better ports will settle into an elegant and graceful place.

Thanks to Martin for organising, and for the chance to try a broad range of very enjoyable wines. Certainly the most enlightening mature port tasting of my relatively fledgeling career! I'm fascinated to hear that many thought this might be a slight lull in the 77s as I was impressed, but I would be delighted if true as I've already acquired a case of Graham '77 and will be keeping an eye out for more across several of these houses.

I'd agree with the sentiments here and thank you Martin! I opened eight 1977s in 2021 over a long lockdown weekend (it took me a few days to recover from that I can tell you) and was left underwhelmed though for some unknown reason I didn't open Taylor. Fonseca was the best of them closely followed by SW, GC and Graham.

Perhaps Alex is right and they are in a dumb phase. The F77 I had last year at Panascal was very fine but then it's been stored in Oporto so is likely maturing at a different rate.

Thanks for arranging Martin, its a lot of work and you did a world class job!. A great evening and some good research done. Enjoyed catching up with old friends and new

I have always avoided this vintage and just have a few bottles of Smith Woodhouse and Gould Campbell plus some of the Tappit Hens ( which are fantastic ). I came out of the tasting with my view confirmed and that money is better spent particularly on current prices on the 1970 vintage. Perhaps a bit broad brush but 70 is just such good value and I think will be going after the 77's in general.

Onwards and upwards

Christopher wrote: ↑14:47 Fri 19 Jul 2024 Perhaps a bit broad brush but 70 is just such good value and I think will be going after the 77's in general....

Tend to agree.

Christopher wrote: ↑14:47 Fri 19 Jul 2024 I came out of the tasting with my view confirmed and that money is better spent particularly on current prices on the 1970 vintage. Perhaps a bit broad brush but 70 is just such good value and I think will be going after the 77's in general.

Yep, get your 1970s while they're still a good value. Based on the cost curves we've seen over the last decade or so for 1963 and 1966, the prices of 1970s are about to start climbing.