For The Love Of Port

Just finished the remnants of this bottle this evening. Interestingly it came without a label but the bottle was made with "WARRES, 1975" imprinted on it. wonder if this is common or not...

Anyway im no expert in smells and tastes, i just know what my nose likes... and ths bit puzzles me, when i opened the bottle, and took a first whiff and taste after decanting, i was immediately struck by what i must call a distinctly medicinal aroma, and really strong camphor. Is this smell a good thing or bad thing? my nose didnt like it at all.. Colourwise, it was light pinkish-tawny at the edges. Subsequently i read that 75 was not a strong year to begin with.

So i left it out and after 3-4 hours, the medicinal smell was very much less distinct, camphor too was very much weakened.

Opinions anyone?
Cheers!

stellata wrote:J
Anyway im no expert in smells and tastes, i just know what my nose likes... and ths bit puzzles me, when i opened the bottle, and took a first whiff and taste after decanting, i was immediately struck by what i must call a distinctly medicinal aroma, and really strong camphor. Is this smell a good thing or bad thing? my nose didnt like it at all..

I have never had these flavours in my VP but often in my tawnys/colheitas. I really don't know where it comes from, my intuition was looking forward insalubrity or unwanted bacteria activities at a certain point of its early life, but I really don't know.

Is it bad, well for my bottles, the nose was not that attractive but the palate where all very good according the specific bottle.

In the last year I've probably opened around 30-40 bottles of VP (not all for me sadly ) and two of them had this sort of smell when opened and decanted, one very strongly.

In both cases the smell disappeared after a few hours in the decanter and what was at first an undrinkable wine became quite pleasant.

I assume that this is the bottle stink that I have read about, and that your bottle suffered the same fate.

I'm not sure what causes the problem, but I would speculate that its a bacterial effect that generates some sort of suphide complex that rapidly moves out of the wine once air is able to circulate across the wine's surface. But if anyone knows the real cause, then please say.

Alex

Most VP bottles I've opened have had some less than pleasing aromas when first opened, but as Alex says, they soon go away.

I've not drunk a Warre '75, but would expect the optimum drinking window to be about 18-36 hours after decanting.

Tom

Aged Bordeaux has a characteristic "medicinal" aroma (alot of times referred to as "Band-aid"). I believe that comes from the terroir, specifically the soil - it does not appear to be characteristic of the cabernet grape.

aha!
no no this was not the medicinal aroma that comes with old bordeauxs ( which i kinda like actually ) it was nearly...chemical. In any case thanks for the replies, i did try leaving half the bottle in a decanter and after 10 hours the camphorous smell was much disipated but still noticable on the nose, and so i thought no more of it than a peculiarity of Warre's 1975.

Next on the drink list is a 1963 colheita a very kind friend purchased for me as a gift whilst in portugal. The label and description are all in portuguese, so my senses will be the only guide in this first meeting.