2007 Rocha Vintage Port -- (Cask Sample)

[Glenn E.]

Tasted blind at Roy's house, July 1-4, 2009.

Bottle #1: redacted
Bottle #2: 2007 Quinta de Valle Longo Vintage Port
Bottle #3: 2007 Magalhães Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #4: 2007 Porto Rocha Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

2007 Porto Rocha Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

Day 1
Color: a very deep garnet - clearly more red than the others. Nice and opaque with a 3/16" fade at the rim.
Nose: boysenberry, maybe some red raspberries too. A faint hint of menthol. Light, aromatic alcohol.
Palate: medium full body and right in the middle on the sweetness scale. Good grip. Some milk chocolate. The fruits are a bit brighter than they were on the nose. Good acidity.
Finish: long and smooth, the most pleasant of the four bottles in this flight.

Initial score: 93-96. Clearly a little better than Bottle #3, and that's saying something.

Day 2
Color: more purple today so I can't call it garnet anymore, but it's not the same "standard medium purple" as the others. Still 3/16" fade.
Nose: menthol and alcohol, though neither is strong. Angelfood cake. Boysenberries.
Palate: it's thicker, richer, and sweeter tonight. I'd have to call it full-bodied and sweet now, with good grip (though slightly less than bottle #3) and good acidity. Blackberries and boysenberries are the dominant fruits.
Finish: strong tannins and nice fruit are followed by a brief lull as your palate adjusts, then some mellow heat, more fruits, and an even grip. Again, very long and pleasant.

New score: 94-97. This is creeping up into epic Port range, so I'm trying to be careful. I don't believe it is as good as the Vale do Meao (yet) so I couldn't go as high as 98. But this one's a winner for sure.

Day 3
per tradition, I did not taste on Day 3

Day 4
Color: a deep, rich magenta with a 3/16" fade at the rim. The color of this Port has seemed to change very slightly every day.
Nose: mellow purple fruits, mostly aromatic alcohol but just a touch of a medicinal note.
Palate: good grip, nice fruits, good acidity. A struggled with two flavors that I couldn't quite place, and finally settled on a faint mint and a mexican mole sauce. (Roy called it cocoa powder.) It was chocolate, but not sweet chocolate and I felt it had a vaguely meaty richness to it as well.
Finish: tart fruit, moderate tannins. Still very long and very smooth, now with a very pleasant warmth late in the finish.

Final comments: the best of this bunch, though this one also seemed like it might be just past its peak on Day 4. As with the 2007 Magalhães I felt that the added brightness in the fruits today detracted every so slightly from the overall impression of richness, but not enough to alter my score.

Final score: 94-97 points.

Reveal: 2007 Porto Rocha Vintage Port. Wow! I wasn't expecting that at all, and it impressed me even more because of it. I feel that my score may be very slightly generous (as opposed to the 2007 Vale do Meão where, as high as it was, I may still have been conservative) but am sticking with it. It's a fairly wide 3-point range, after all, and this is a fantastic Port.

[Roy Hersh]

Final comments: the best of this bunch, though this one also seemed like it might be just past its peak on

Solely meant in the spirit of education:

For a cask sample, it is almost an oxymoron to call it "past its peak" although most will certainly understand what you were meaning. These little inflections of the language have a lot to do with conveying a point in time, the overall "big picture" or otherwise.

How about this: With four days of air time, this wine showed better on day two and the extra oxidation did not help it to further improve.

[Glenn E.]

I'm always trying to improve my Port vocabulary, so thanks for the instruction. :)

After all, I'm the guy who finds all those weird aromas and flavors and then struggles to find a "good" way to mention them!