1987 Barros de Zellaer Vintage Port

[Todd Pettinger]

Barros de Zellaer Vintage Port - 1987
Soft red colour, the look of tawny Port. Some browns in the edges, with light orange integrating itself with the light reds and pinks. A strong nose of spirit, this Port finally mellowed considerably after 4 hours of decanter time. I sampled upon decanting, at 3 hours, 4 hours (main consumption) and a small sip again at 6½ hours, just before leaving my father’s house.

I chose this particular Vintage Port as the bottle meant something to me as was partially a post-Christmas Dinner Port, but also to help celebrate my father’s 65th Birthday a few weeks earlier. This is one of the first VPs I ever tried and bought, from a memorable experience where Cristiano van Zeller himself was doing the pouring at a sampling.

Early on, the nose and indeed, the palate, was dominated by an in-the-face alcohol profile. While this blew off the nose by the 4th hour, the alcohol integrated itself earlier than that. At 4 hours, we had a great couple of glasses, very smooth and mature. At the 6½ hour mark, it was simply perfect, smooth, mellow, rich and balanced.

Not a whole lot of in the face tannins, leading me to believe that this will not last an awful lot longer. One the palate there were raspberries and mellow grapes, some candied cherry. I caught some back-palate flavours of espresso and mocha (interesting as I have read these descriptions in other’s TNs but have never experienced them myself until tonight) and some tawny notes of very light caramel, raisin and toffee.

I imagine this Port is at its peak. While it may get slightly better with more age, I would suggest if you have a few bottles lying around, crack one open and test it for yourself to see how it is doing.

My father was impressed, I was impressed (again) and everyone who shared the Port with us was impressed. A great way to end a late Christmas celebration with loved ones!

Todd