1963 Croft Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

FTLOP 4th Anniversary party
Holiday Inn, Issaquah, July 30th 2009

1. 1937 Warre Reserve Tawny (Colheita) bottled 1997
2. 1963 Niepoort Colheita bottled 1986
3. 1966 Porto Rocha Colheita bottled 1997
4. 1968 Quevedo Garrafeira Particular (Colheita) bottled 1999
5. 1963 Croft Vintage Port
6. 1963 Warre Vintage Port
7. 1966 Dow Vintage Port
8. 1967 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port

1963 Croft Vintage Port

Color: Clear ruby with nice highlights.
Nose: Round and red. Faintly dusty with significant alcohol.
Palate: Bang! Quite hot & spicy. Red hots (small cinnamon candies). A bit of a harsh edge. With time, a soft sweetness develops but it remained hot throughout.
Finish: Hmm... I seem to have forgotten to take notes on the finish.

Score: 88 points. Too hot for my taste, though it was noted that heat is a fairly typical characteristic of Croft Vintage Ports. I could have seen past the heat, but the harsh edge that was also present just compounded the problem. As I described it at the time, if someone wants to open a bottle and invite me to share I'll be more than happy to oblige, but I won't be buying any because the price is out of line for the performance (assuming this is a representative bottle, of course). It is a 1963 after all.

[Eric Menchen]

That's not my recent experience with one of these. Yes, it had some warmth, but not too much to be distracting. Better luck next time someone else opens up one of these and you have the opPortunity to taste it.

[Glenn E.]

[Andy Velebil]

It is a 1963 after all.

I've had some great 1963 in the past year, so don't totally write them off. However, I'd say how well they've been stored all these years is the most important thing to consider when buying '63s at this point.

[Moses Botbol]

Wow, '63 is one of Croft's better vintages too.