2002 Warre Late Bottled Vintage Port

[John Trombley]

This is a note on the 2002 Warre's Late Bottled Vintage Unfiltered, bottled 2006, marketed about 2010.

Cork-finished. $25.99; Kroger's Marketplace, Toy, OH.

About 2 mm of fading on the rim; color violet, red tinges, little or no bricking. Typical Warre's monolithic plum scents, with a slight vanillin air about it. Opens to show some rose-water and powdered sugar, after a few hours adding bacon and mild charcoal smoke.

Entry noticeably energetic, with moderated sweetness--the 'dryness' typical of Warre. Tannins have softened, finish with a twist of orange bitterness; not a hint of spirit. Texture is unusually soft and caressing, but by no means is it flavorless; hitting on all the cylinders. However, as it opens, it gets more tannic, grippy, leafy, almost stemmy, which is in my experience typical of this series. At first I thought it had peaked but it has room to grow in cellar. Drink 2020-2027, at least. Overall has the slight rusticity, dark fruit, restrained sweetness. and good grip of the Warre's house style, and this reminds me of the 1982, that really blossomed at about 25 years. If you like the style, you'll love this at maturity. 91/100.

At about 6 hours the fruit springs to life and becomes anything but monolithic, showing blackcurrant, thyme, perhaps blueberry in addition to the above on both nose and palate; its inherent energy comes to life; and as this happened, the inherent fluidity of the wine reappears without lessening its savory tannins. This is the time to start drinking this wine at present; leave it in the decanter for a minimum 6 hours if you're opening it now. Superb value.

Had a little Tuxford and Tebbetts Stilton (Murray's), so I indulged. Excellent but it fights just a little with all that fruit.

Will write again when it's opened more if there's more to say about it.

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.