Decant: 6½ hours - Decanted approximately 6½ hours before decanting. From a bottle that looked to have been well cellared, capped off with a large cap of pink wax. Decanted out a pale rose colour and with a slight VA smell from a fair amount of fine, sludgy sediment.
Deepened in colour in the decanter to a deeper, distinctly brown, warm red. The VA has eased off and no longer dominates. Instead, the prime smell is of damp earth and cherry stones. Sour cherry juice initially in the mouth, lots of acidity - a little too much in all honesty - and some tannins still in the wine in a subdued sort of way. A decent amount of fruit, those sour cherries stay with you and are supported by some Granny Smith apples, a bit of golden syrup and a touch of grapefruit. The aftertaste is good, but not great, bringing a lovely combination of grapefruit to start which stays around for a long time and at some point changes into black licorice.
This is not a bad wine, but is not a leading light from the 1970 vintage. Distinctly better than the Dow 2001 LBV that I had last night, it is in the lower quartile but may improve a little with more time in the decanter. 3/3 or 88/100.
After a couple of days of drinking this wine, it became clear that this bottle was slightly corked, sufficient to detract a little from the potential of the wine, but not enough to make it undrinkable. 88 points
TN: 1970 Dalva Vintage Port
Moderators: Glenn E., Andy Velebil