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An emergency was declared which resulted in a one-hour dash along the M4 to help test AHB's new black port glasses.

Three glasses, labelled A, B and C were put before me. AHB knew what all three were, but not which was in which glass. I knew one, because I brought it, but not which glass.

My notes read!

Black Glass A
Red fruits on the nose. Big, young, black fruit with lots of quite sharp tannin. Oranges in the mid palate. Menthol in the finish. Croft LBV 05?

Black Glass B
Revolting nose. Just revolting. Yuck.

Black Glass C
Slightly volatile nose. Very smooth entry - quite thick and chewy. Mouthwatering sweetness then a long liquorice finish with some heat. A semi-mature vintage port, perhaps a Taylor 85?


Black glass tastings always carry the risk of embarrassment, and this time it was delivered in spectacular style.

Glass B was my bottle - Real Vomitcola 1983, brought under duress at AHB's request.

Glass C, which I thought was Taylor 1985, was Quinta do Noval 1978. Not too terrible a guess.

Glass A, which I guessed as the very young LBV, was Quinta do Noval Nacional 1978. Spectacularly wrong.

Thanks to AHB for inviting me and for opening these interesting bottles. I'm now off to sit in the corner with my pointy hat on.

Quinta de la Rosa 1991 was also served, but not blind and not in black glasses.

DRT should not be too embarrased. It was obvious which bottle was the Real Vinicola. As a wine, it's not too bad but the winemaker clearly loves sulphur so it probably needs a good shake and a couple of days to throw off all the sulphurous smells. It's actually reasonably drinkable if you don't smell it first.

I knew that the remaining glasses were Noval and Noval Nacional 1978. I got them the wrong way round. Hey ho!

But then I know nothing about port

DRT wrote:Glass A, which I guessed as the very young LBV, was Quinta do Noval Nacional 1978. Spectacularly wrong.

This is quite interesting because it seems to be an example of the phenomenon that I have seen (and been a party too, myself) a few times where a very slow-maturing Vintage Port is judged, blind, as being a not-spectacular young Port. It does make we wonder whether the is a peak speed of maturity which some Ports fail to achieve: although they remain youthful for longer than one might expect they are not, objectively, as nice to drink as those that mature faster. Or at least not within our lifetimes...