2007 Quinta do Vale Dona Maria Vintage Port

[Eric Menchen]

Opened for this month's virtual tasting, and in an attempt to gage this one for the future ...

Decanted at 8 a.m. Color is deep dark magenta. I hear a lot of young Port characterized as inky purple, but this was more on the red/pink side of the spectrum without enough blue to make it into violet or purple. Still, it was dark as I expected. First whiff was jammy fruit, then I noticed a hint of dried spice and later a little leather on a thick background. Later in the day I thought the aroma was of red fruit, and in the evening it had turned to berry, like a huckleberry or lingonberry. I couldn't quit place it, but it was not one of the more common berries like strawberry, raspberry, or blueberry, although of those three, closest to the blueberry.

D+14 hours: Aroma was fruity along with some menthol and eucalyptus or other dried leaf. In the mouth, WOW! I've never had a VP this young. I own 2005 and 2007, but prior to this the youngest I had tasted was 2003. This was huge. There is definitely a lot of tannin here, as after a glass I felt like I had been sampling Port all evening. However, as I was drinking it I didn't find the tannin so overwhelming because of all the fruitiness and the thick medium to heavy body. That eucalyptus flavor was big in the mouth too, although I couldn't quite place it. It was more of a herbaceousness. My wife said this one had a lot of grape skin flavor, and while I didn't disagree, I thought it was more of grape stem. Good finish, but I don't remember how long it was. I'll try to capture this in a subsequent tasting.

Score? I really don't know about this one. I've started scoring some Port where I have a basis of comparison, but I don't have that in this case. It was a pleasant drink, even at this age, so somewhere in the 90-94 range? I suspect it will be a nice drinker in the future, but I really couldn't tell you based on this tasting how great it might be or when.

[Eric Menchen]

D+38: The grape skin and grape stem was pretty well gone this evening, and it was a very pleasant drink. My wife agreed on these points. In the empty glass I thought I smelled dried flowers, like potpourri, and tobacco. My wife suggested I was just making this up. You'll have to decide for yourself.

D+41: I noticed a hint of the grape stem this time, and both at +38 and now I noticed the alcohol a little more than the first night, but not too strong. Medium finish.

[Eric Menchen]

Day 3: I thought this was going downhill on this evening. But day 4 showed this wasn't the case. It just didn't taste great, and the alcohol was a bit harsh. I'm not sure if the Port had a bad day, or I did, after drinking a bunch of other wines earlier in the evening (including some 2007 Beaucastel ).

Day 4: O.k. the alcohol was still elevated from the first 2 days, but better integrated than on day 3. My wife and I both enjoyed this on this evening. Not as good as the first two days, but still nice.

Day 5: Harshness is gone, as is just about everything else. Easy to finish off, but just flat. There was just a small pour left in a big bottle, so that probably didn't help. At least it didn't turn bad.