Taylor First Estate Reserve Port

[Michael Hann]

Taylor's First Estate reserve ruby port

I drank this over several evenings December 16-19. The first two evenings I decanted 1/3 bottle 3 hours before drinking. On the last evening, I did not decant, with the expectation that the residual in the bottle had essentially been well aired over four days of being opened.

Medium ruby color. Fair nose. Appropriate sweetness and winning fruitiness. A little bit of licorice and mint in the taste. The first couple of evenings there was a disagreeable rough edge -- maybe bitterness, maybe astringency. I was able to overlook this, however, and enjoy the other aspects of this port. I sampled with walnuts and figs. The wine was most pleasing with the figs. One the last night of drinking I did not experience the unpleasant roughness or astringency I had noted earlier. Further, the wine tasted fuller and richer. I assume this indicates that the port benefited from further airing. I thought the wine had moderate length on the first couple of nights but did not note any particular length on the last night, probably because the length was short. 85/100.