2001 Warre's LBV Port

[John Trombley]

2001 Warre Porto Late Bottled Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto (2/26/2013)
2001 Warre Porto Late Bottled Vintage, Bottle Aged, Unfiltered; Bottled 2005, Released for Sale 2009. $33/750 ml. Warre's 'earlier bottled, late released' style has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and often will improve 15-20 years in cellar (such as the 1982). 20 pabv. Produced and bottled by the Symington family; imported by Vineyard Brands, American Canyon, CA.

Cork-finished; could not be removed with an Ah-So, but a Waiter's Friend did the trick. Double-decanted through a port filter. A moderate amount of medium-sized, leathery crust. Quite bitty when examined in a Riedel Zin glass; heavy coating and tears; deep purple-gray, opaque coloration with a <2 mm meniscus, no bricking. At 12 years or age looks like a current release.

Spicy, slightly-peppery cherry-berry mineral nose, with a juicy, lightly vanilla-tinged impression.

A creamy, juicy, mouth-filling wine, with the alcohol heat and tannin texture almost completely buffered by and coated with extract. Deep and focused cherry-juice impression, on the dry side, with a persistent ripely-tannic finish. Served with some Murray's Reggiano, it matches nearly as well with the cheese as a Gaja Barbaresco would. Caressing and full of joyful pleasure.

A very impressive specimen of this type, and totally pleasurable current drinking; with Warre's rusticity but with considerable depth of fruit, and time in hand, as Michael Broadbent would say. Drink now-2020. 91+/100 (91 pts.)