Decant: 12 hours - Decanted this at 9am. Cork fell apart on me and had to be pushed into the bottle. Strong smell of varnish and nail polish remover as I decanted. Underneath this is the smell of stewed plums. Not a pleasant combination. A sample straight from the decanter had the same overwhelmingly unpleasant smell - varnish and black treacle. Settled in the pit of my stomach and made me feel slightly queasy. I recall a wine a long time ago that had a similar smell. Tasting, there is some date/walnut flavours that would be quite pleasant if it weren't for the awful taint. So unpleasant that I spat the wine out! Interestingly, there was a very long aftertaste with a lot of interesting flavours - shows what the wine could/should be.
Tasting again 3 hours later, nothing has changed.
12 hours after decanting, the wine has come round and lost all of its repulsive smell. This is now a fairly straightforward but very enjoyable glass of mature vintage port. The nose is of sweet prunes and figs, in the mouth its full of christmas cake flavours (went beautifully with the Christmas pudding we had left over) and has an excellent length. Enjoyable and good value at £14 a bottle. 88 points
TN: 1988 Warre Quinta da Cavadinha Vintage Port
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