1987 Souza Vintage Port

[Andy Velebil]

Decanted 2.5 hours and consumed over the next 4 to see how different decant times affected it or not. To address the decant issue first, this showed some slightly unresolved tannins on the finish when I first started tasting this. Those tannins had fully integrated and were no longer detectable by the end of the bottle, which did take away a bit of overall complexity. This also got a bit simpler on the finish as time went on and I'll have to experiment with popping-and-pouring to see how this shows out of the gate and over a few hours thereafter. That all aside, this bottle showed mature strawberries and rhubarb, the latter of which a previous bottle didn't. It still had that mocha component to it and some spices early on that faded out later. This still has plenty of acidity which helps the overall complexity and keeps the dried flowers from being too dry in texture. Comparing this to the 1997 Vintage the acidity is much more prominent and, along with slightly better tannins, has helped this to reach this stage of its life and still show well. While this shows far more maturity than a number of other 1987's, it hasn't fallen off the edge. It's in a wonderful mature drinking spot at the moment, though it won't get better at this point, so I won't recommend holding these too much longer. Regardless, this bottle shows a bit better than my last and makes a very nice drink at the moment.
89 Points

[Roy Hersh]

This note sounds SO much better than the last one and yet only 1 point difference. Hmmmm.

[Andy Velebil]

This note sounds SO much better than the last one and yet only 1 point difference. Hmmmm.

I wouldn't say "SO much better" but it was better. Had it not lost some of that grip with decanting I probably would have scored it a bit higher and why I'll experiment with no (or less) decanting and see how it goes then. However, like the 1997, when comparing this to others from the same vintage this is FAR ahead of them in the advancement and lack of complexity department...but on par for a well made middle tier VP ready to consume now.