ThePortForum.com

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Santelmo White;
• Santelmo Tawny;
• Santelmo 10Y;
• Cruz White;
• Sao Pedro das Aguias 10Y;
• Rozès Reserve;
• Quinta do Passadouro 1995;
• Quinta do Passadouro 1994;
• Niepoort 1994;
• Feist 1967 colheita bottled 1983;
• Fonseca 1985;
• Dow 1965 colheita bottled 1976;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

Santelmo White, costing a whole €4.99 from Lidl France. Luxury when I was a lad we used to dream of !

Yellow, not gold, and perhaps 5% opaque. Nosing of red grapes. Much richer texture than the Cruz white, but drier. Not any good as stand-alone port, but actually an excellent cocktail ingredient. My immediate reaction was that this would make an excellent Pimms substitute: mixed one part this, one part tonic, one part fruit juice, and add a summer afternoon.

This bottle reinforced my belief that to be a good cocktail base, a white port needs to be at the dry end of the scale.

On it's own this was a fairly uninspiring quaff - but a dash of tonic made a huge difference..

Pity I don't like Pimms...

From Lidl. Very pale in colour, a hint of green on the rim - less than 5% opaque. Muted on the nose, but with a very plastic smell. Waxy dominated apricots on the palate, with a slight hint of white pepper. Decent balance but unattractive flavours. Long finish, full of fake sugar and plastic. Unpleasant - a port to avoid. 65/100.