TN: 1873 Schofield Vintage Port

[Al B.]

Decant: 3 hours - UK bottled by Schofield Brothers, shipper unknown. Very pale rose in colour, but with a surprising amount of red left for such an old wine. Plenty of fruit on the nose, but candied, and with Turkish Delight mixed in. In the mouth, this port is dry and quite bitter, like biting into rose hips, but with plenty of different flavours and a very respectable complexity for a wine that has dried out. The suprisingly long finish is rather hot, leaving the tongue and cheeks tingling but with a lingering bitterness of unripe olives. With time in the glass, the bouquet of this wine softened and became more complex with the wonderful spiciness that can be found in old vintage port. Sadly, the improvement did not really show in the palate of the wine. Overall, this is a very respectable wine for its age, but not a great wine on an absolute scale. 84 points