Decant: 12 hours - Opened at short notice to cheer myself up after a VA contaminated Warre 1966. A top-shoulder fill from a bottle clearly kept in a damp cellar. The cork showed sign of leakage when the capsule had been removed. Decanted cleanly although only stood upright for an hour. Pale rose in colour on decanting but with a clean and attractive nose of black cherry pie. A quick sip on decanting revealed a lovely wine which was drinking very nicely right from the decanter. The following note was taken 12 hours after decanting.
Deep red in colour, looking like a heavyweight port. No browning but a slight chestnut tinge to the redness of the port. The nose is fabulous, just tilting the glass to inspect the colour releases this wonderful aroma of meat juices and black fruits. Sticking a nose in the glass also brings out a streak of fresh ground pepper. Thick texture in the mouth and lovely depth of fruit with some very interesting spiciness. There are tannins, but they restrain themselves to a supporting role and are dominated by the huge amounts of fruit. The fruit is mainly secondary, with dried cherries and molasses and morphs through several phases in the mouth. The aftertaste is massive, lasting a good two minutes, and is dominated by the spiciness of tobacco offset by a lovely dark Dundee Cake of mixed fruit and sweetness. Very impressive. 94 points
TN: 1963 Dow Vintage Port
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