2007 Gould Campbell Vintage Port -- (Cask Sample)

[Glenn E.]

Tasted blind at Roy's house, June 22-25, 2009. Preliminary report here.

Bottle #1: 2007 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #2: 2007 Sandeman Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #3: 2007 Niepoort Pisca Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #4: 2007 Gould Campbell Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

2007 Gould Campbell Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

Day 1
Color: inky purple with a 3/16" fade at the rim. Pretty standard for a cask sample.
Nose: needs coaxing to show a mixed bag of mellow red and fresh purple fruits, some fragrant alcohol, and then also some more generic "heat"-like alcohol. The fragrant alcohol might also be called a floral note depending on the person, but to me it seems like it is alcohol-based.
Palate: initially sweet, then some mellow purple fruits. Not as immediately pleasant as Bottle #1, but with more complexity so ultimately probably better.
Finish: quite long, and a nice mixture of fruit, tannins, and heat that fades evenly.

Initial rating: 91-94.

Day 2
Color: no change
Nose: still reticent and in need of encouragement to show. Dusty minerals, some neutral alcohol, purple and black fruits, and maybe a bit of smoke.
Palate: medium+ body which is heavier than Day 1. It's trying to be sweet and mellow, but isn't quite there. Some fresh red fruits are intruding and disrupting the mellow party.
Finish: tart and sour fruits (mostly red and purple), tannins, and grape skin

New rating: 89-92. Another somewhat disappointing showing that just wasn't as nice as Day 1. If offered one bottle from the three with equal ratings (1, 3, 4) I'd probably take 4 by a hair.

Day 3
I didn't taste on Day 3, but thought I should include it here for continuity.

Day 4 - my initial report referred to this as Day 3
Color: slightly more ruby in tone than before, putting it at almost exactly the same color as Bottle #2.
Nose: more relaxed than before, so needs less coaxing. Dusty minerals (which seems to be a theme for Day 3) and a medly of all the typical fruit colors (red, purple, black). The red fruits are brighter/fresher than the purple and black, which tend toward the mellow/ripe end of the spectrum. There's some nice heat from the alcohol, too.
Palate: mild tart raspberry, some heat, and some medium to light tannins. It also has a medium body, so overall a very nicely drinking Port.
Finish: some pleasant fruit, faint tannins, heat, and then finally some grape stem.

Final comments: my favorite of the four for drinking now. It doesn't seem to have quite as much long-term potential as 2 or 3, but that's splitting hairs because this one should still age nicely for 20-30 years. As with bottle #1, this one seemed to drop off after the first day but then hold pretty steady. Final score: 89-92.

Reveal: 2007 Gould Campbell Vintage Port (Cask Sample). I've heard good things about this Port from others who have tried cask samples, so I was surprised that my score wasn't higher. I don't know if that's just another example of my inexperience with cask samples, or if we might have had a slightly off bottle.

[Roy Hersh]

This ... was DEFINITELY not an off bottle.

I will admit that I liked it a bit more in Portugal but I had it from two different bottles there, both stellar and this one was just slightly "less" than what I tried there which was a bit bigger and with greater length. Otherwise, this was still a VERY sound VP.