40 Year Old Tawny Port by Quinta da Romaneira

[Glenn E.]

Opened for a dinner party on 3/12 but still going strong.

Quinta da Romaneira 40-yr old Tawny Port

Color: Deep, rich mahogany with a little red still showing
Nose: Initially a little too much alcohol, but that blew off. Sweet spices, dust, cinnamon apple candy, some vanilla, and something almost caramel-like. If you over-indulge with a deep breath there's still quite a bit of alcohol there, but it's mostly behind the other scents.
Palate: Rich and luscious, but not syrupy. Great acidity goes with some light citrus (blood orange?), followed by a very rich sweetness and the sweet spices from the nose. Sweet dried apricots. Possibly some coffee or toffee, or some other semi-burned flavor.
Finish: Toasted sugar or some other roasty-like note. The sweetness from the palate carries over and the finish is very long. Minutes long. Some apples appear in the tail-off to nothingness.

Score: 96 points. Amazing, outstanding, superb... but this bottle stops just short of magnificent for some reason. I hope I'm not getting jaded from having had it so often recently!

[Roy Hersh]

What is the highest and lowest scores you've given to this bottling?

[Glenn E.]

Looking back... 97 is the highest and 96 is the lowest. I'm apparently rather consistently enamoured by it!