1977 Dow Vintage Port

[John M.]

Bottled in 1979---called the Silver Jubilee in honor of Queen Elizabeth's 25th year of her reign. The bottle was purchased out of a private cellar a year ago so provenance was assured.

I opened and decanted; immediately poured half into a 375m bottle and corked it for day 2 (to avoid cork taint issues). Drank the first half with a friend the first night. it was good and evolved during the evening but Day 2 was better. The below note is on the second half, drunk the next day--shared with same friend.

Clear Red color with a hint of Brown. Short decant to avoid any cork taint - poured contents into decanted two hours prior. Nice, generous nose with aged red fruits and a little earthiness and floral. Lovely balance with raspberry jam the dominant flavor (perfectly sweet) with a slight chocolate quality at the finish. Picked up strawberry and that earthiness once in a while--hard to pick out nuances of flavor--but the taste was just outstanding. The finish was dead on---ended so well with a moderate length. The best one of these I've had (and sadly my last).

96 Points

[Thomas V]

Thanks for the great TN, it is super for a beginner as me, to pick up hints and tricks for the decanting etc.

What is the reason for the 2nd tasting being better than the initial one?

What do you mean about cork tainting?

Cheers

Thomas

[John M.]

Hi Thomas...

2nd Day better mainly because the decant time for the first bottle was too short. But the end of Day 1 the port was much better than an hour earlier (drunk from 2 to 3 hours after opening). Considering that, the fairer tasting note is the 2nd, with proper decant time. With the benefit that someone reading can glean this info as well.

77 Dows is one of those ports that tends to have cork taint, which often will manifest itself some hours after being decanted. As a means to avoid this transformation, it usually means drink up before. Roy gave me the idea from his discussion on the 1983 Cockburn. I knew we could not finish the bottle in one sitting so I decanted, then double decanted half into a small bottle and put a T-cork on it to limit the air on that half (filled all the way). It worked.

Welcome to FTLOP ...excellent question.

[Moses Botbol]

There's a lot of cork variation to the 77 Dow that makes this vintage a little bit of a gamble. Probably about 10-20% of this vintage could taste off, but is a rocking vintage when a good bottle is opened.