ThePortForum.com

Referring to the tasting here;

Tasting notes:

• 1953 Royal Oporto Colheita;
• 1974 Royal Oporto Colheita;
• 1975 Royal Oporto Colheita;
• 1976 Royal Oporto Colheita;
• 1977 Royal Oporto Colheita;
• NV REAL COMPANHIA VELHA Fundador Tawny;

with a slew of other types of wines ranging from rieslings, pinot noirs, cabernets, and someone snuck a few bordeaux blends in there too.

There was a consensus amongst port tasters that the royal oporto colheitas have a baked apple component to them.

Eric and John noted slight orange zest but I didn't pick it up.

WOTN was between the 74 or the 76.

Mine was the 74.

An excellent night hosted by g-man, including bison chili dumplings (my "dumpling" of the night), a boatload of cheeses, and sushi rolls.

My wine-of-the-night, from the focus port lineup, was indeed the Royal 76 over the 74 (even though its my birth year). But I really enjoyed the somewhat madeirized Hoopers 1944 (and it is officially the oldest port I've had, beating the Taylor 63 and Royal 53) that g-man slipped me a glass of.

Of the other wines, many were lovely but my favorite was the first: a Hug "el pape" (was that a 2006? if so, it's a mere $19 at the wine library and I'm going to pick up a few!) that had been open a couple days. I'm amused at how much I enjoyed this wine, given some of the astounding bottles that were being opened. I think I just prefer tamed tannins and a mellow, roundness in my wines.

retried the colheitas on a clean palate and no smells of dumpling floating around ... you guys going to post impressions??? =)