What have you opened this week?

[Mike J. W.]

1997 Quinta Do Infantado VP last week. 1994 Ferreira VP yesterday.

[Martin H]

Dow's 20 year old Tawny - smells great and first taste is good, but follows with strong alcohol heat, which ruins it for me a bit. Will hold it in the fridge for some time, hopefully it mellows a bit.

[Mike J. W.]

2003 Quinta de Roriz. It's delicious.

[Andy Velebil]

2003 Quinta de Roriz. It's delicious.

A very good vintage for it!

[Roy Hersh]

20 Year Old Tawny Van Zeller's & Co.
10-20-30-40-50 both White Ports and Tawny by ENOLOGO, a joint venture between Denmark's Torben Mandrup and Joana Duarte, former winemaker for Bulas.

[Thomas V]

1985 Gould Campbell VP

[Eric Ifune]

DR 40 year old.

[Al B.]

Dow's 20 year old Tawny - smells great and first taste is good, but follows with strong alcohol heat, which ruins it for me a bit. Will hold it in the fridge for some time, hopefully it mellows a bit.

And did it?

Last weekend I opened a bottle of Krohn 1961 for a friend born that year. It showed very, very well. I was extremely happy with the bottle.

[Mike J. W.]

2004 Dow Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira. It's a little bit of a fruit bomb and it's still 5 to 7 years away from being fully integrated, but it's a nice Port. It's also sweeter than a Dow VP.

[Martin H]

Dow's 20 year old Tawny - smells great and first taste is good, but follows with strong alcohol heat, which ruins it for me a bit. Will hold it in the fridge for some time, hopefully it mellows a bit.

And did it?

Last weekend I opened a bottle of Krohn 1961 for a friend born that year. It showed very, very well. I was extremely happy with the bottle.

At first no, so I let it breathe in a decanter for a few hours and that toned down the alcohol heat considerably, but I think it also lost some taste and length. Overall it feels more like a mediocre 10 year old tawny.

[Mike J. W.]

1985 Warre's VP. I noticed last night that it had a slight leak, so I made it next up. Decanted this morning. The cork was fully soaked through and it came out in 2 pieces. Hardly any sediment at all, but it was the palest of pale ruby color. It smelled mostly of brandy with a faint mustiness in the backgroud. It tasted just okay on a sip this morning after decanting. 9 hours later and it reeked of acetone and the taste was definitely off. TCA. Down the drain it went. I've stood up a bottle of 1983 Quinta do Infantado, so we'll see how that is tomorrow night.

[Eric Menchen]

Broadbent Auction Reserve, Lot #1, 375ml.
This was up for auction on Winebid, $10 + fee, which luckily is still %-based even at this low amount. (Spectrum Auctions introduced a minimum buyers premium a while back of $5 as I recall.) I had 11 other bottles purchased and filled out a case for shipping with this. I knew it was old and might not be any good, but hey, worth a try. The T-stopper broke when I tried removing it. I had already planned on decanting, and did so to filter out cork pieces as well as a lot of sediment for a ruby reserve. Appearance-wise, this looked like a VP from the 70s or 80s. And it tasted a bit like that too. It certainly wasn't like a great VP, but I'd give it 88-90 points. It was definitely worth the gamble.

[Al B.]

Niepoort 1991 - rather tasty and nicely mature.

[Roy Hersh]

10-20-30-40-50 year old Whites and Tawnies from my friend Torben Mandrup and Joana Duarte, (former winemaker at Bulas).

Also a fresh and killer bottle of DR L70.

[Glenn E.]

1937 Porto Rocha Colheita (b. 2007)

Opened for the March Port Club meeting. Decanted for 5 hours which was just about perfect. Was still improving slightly, so maybe 6 would have been better. I've owned this bottle since 2009 or 2010 and it's been sleeping peacefully in one of my wine fridges, so I was very careful when retrieving it to avoid stirring up the super fine sediment that is so common in old Porto Rocha Colheitas. Managed to keep it clean while decanting, too.

No one mentioned that it seemed like a Port that had been in bottle too long, though stylistically it seemed to have sharper edges than might be normal. Even after the reveal no one thought that it had suffered from bottle age, though it did lose out on Port of the Night to a 2011 bottling of S. Leonardo 40 Year Old. You know, one of those old really amazing ones. So no shame in that.

[Roy Hersh]

Both sound fabulous!

[Al B.]

A half bottle of Croft 2004, bottled in 2009. Still drinking very nicely, full of sour cherry fruit. Just the right wine for when the decanter has somehow become empty but you’re still thirsty.

[A.S. Demka]

Blackett 20yo white, bottled in 2023

[Andy Velebil]

Blackett 20yo white, bottled in 2023

What did you think of it? I had it recently so curious on your experience.

[Scott Esterly]

Niepoort 20 year old tawny. I just love this tawny.