ThePortForum.com

Here's the link.

http://www.wineanorak.com/portugal/vesuvio.htm

Good article and rare to see a full vertical of this.

Interesting scores on the 1989/1990! I'm not sure I agree with those. 94 points for the 89' is quite high. The past couple times I've had it, it was showing some age and is best in the mid-term. The 1990 is holding up better, but is still weak compared to other vintages of Vesuvio.

And he left off 1994 from the top vintages list...come on now, we all know thats one of it's best years...just ask Mr. Vesuvio (aka Al B.)

Andy V wrote:..just ask Mr. Vesuvio (aka Al B.)

Mr Vesuvio makes him sound like a band member from the Blues Brothers. I now have this image of Alex in black suit, white shirt, narrow black tie and black sunglassess......drinking Vesuvio!

Perhaps fancy dress tastings are the future!

benread wrote:

Andy V wrote:..just ask Mr. Vesuvio (aka Al B.)

Mr Vesuvio makes him sound like a band member from the Blues Brothers. I now have this image of Alex in black suit, white shirt, narrow black tie and black sunglassess......drinking Vesuvio!

Perhaps fancy dress tastings are the future!

dont forget his Reidel in a box

There's a nice little gap in the bass guitar case for a Riedel glass when I need to play bass and have a glass of port handy.

I was also surprised at the relatively low score for the '94, and also the '97 - but perhaps these two are finally shutting down? While I don't think that I have rated the '89 or the '90 as high as Jamie did, I do enjoy the '89 and I'm finding that the Douro bake character of them is integrating into the wine more and more as time goes past. Sadly, this is the vintage that I have least of and so I rarely open one these days.

It was quite a coincidence that last Autumn, both Berry Brothers and the Wine Society organised complete verticals of Vesuvio in London. I managed the Berry Brothers event and it was good fun.

I doubt if we'll see one of these verticals again. We're now up to 14 Symington vintages, and that's starting to push the boundaries for a commercial tasting.

Well I had a vertical with Dominic in 2007 with all the wines except the 2006. I do - as Alex - enjoy the 89 as well, but it really surprised me (to say it politely) that the 94 scored as high as the 89. In my opinion these wines are in a totally different league. The 89 is an interesting wine to experience the douro bake, but the 94 is a top candidate for the Port of the year from this top vintage.

I had these wines side by side in 08, when I visited Vesuvio last time.

Axel