2000 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port

[Lamont Huxley]

I was in the mood for some serious VP last week and decided to open this S-W 2000. I really enjoyed this the last time I had it over 3 years ago so I wanted to see how it was showing now - it certainly didn't disappoint. This note is a synopsis of my impressions over the 4 days that I drank it. It was at it's best after being in the decanter overnight and held steady over the next few days.

Inky purple in color. Smokey dark plum and cherry with loads of lavender and hints of licorice on the nose. Bursting with concentrated, sweet dark fruit with a violet floral edge - full-bodied, glycerin-y texture. Rich and sweet with good depth and extraction - big, ripe tannins, spirity/grippy on the back end - well structured and balanced in a powerful, juicy style with a long finish of sweet fruit and mouth-watering acidity. Delicious but still very young and tightly wound - give it another 10-15 years - love the floral nose and big luscious palate. Should get even better as the secondary characteristics develop. 94+ pts, Tasted 12/11

[Roy Hersh]

Very well described SW'00 Lamont.

As much as I enjoy this Port too, I wonder if it is not a clone of the SW'77 and will reserve judgement (like you mentioned) to wait and see how this evolves and IF the complexity comes forward, or if it will just remain a beautiful, fruit forward, delicious and well-structured VP as it grows older. The jury is still out.

[Andy Velebil]

A house that doesn't get the recognition that it really deserves. They make some really good stuff yet most people outside us nerds don't give them the time of day. As a result, the upside is we can buy it cheap

[Lamont Huxley]

Very well described SW'00 Lamont.

As much as I enjoy this Port too, I wonder if it is not a clone of the SW'77 and will reserve judgement (like you mentioned) to wait and see how this evolves and IF the complexity comes forward, or if it will just remain a beautiful, fruit forward, delicious and well-structured VP as it grows older. The jury is still out.

Thanks, Roy. I've never had the '77 so can't make a comparison myself. I will say that this bottle had a wonderful lavender/violet floral component to go along with the big fruit which I don't remember from the last bottle I had back in '08. It's obviously still pretty early to take a guess but that seemed to bode well for future development of complexity/perfume. In any case, I found it very impressive as is.