For The Love Of Port

This is a South African Vintage Port and was opened just one hour or so before tasting. Alleged to be made with traditional port grapes. The bottle had a T Cork (yes, for a VP) and there was no sediment at all. Rather classic port color, bright red on the rim. The nose was a slight, sweet floral. I expect saccharin sweetness from non-Oporto ports; but for the first time a Non-Oporto port had a nice balance on the sugar. A little winey, a touch of allspice over dark grapes. The finish was moderate, not too acidic. Rather nice. It reminded me of a middle of the road LBV or a ruby reserve.

A bottle of Quevedo LBV was also opened at the same time and in tasting them both it became apparent that the mineral taste I usually get with a port was missing in the De Krans. It's as if the schist imparts a nice element to Oporto ports that others cannot replicate elsewhere.

Post Script: My friend and I drank 1/2 bottle of each. We corked them and put them in the fridge. 5 days later we met to finish them off (along with 5 other fellows and numerous bottles). The Quevdo was still good, just a little worse off, but the De Krans fell off the cliff and was tough to drink. My advice is if you have this and open it, consume it in a timely fashion.

88 Points (first night)

John M. wrote: I expect saccharin sweetness from non-Oporto ports; but for the first time a Non-Oporto port had a nice balance on the sugar..........It's as if the schist imparts a nice element to Oporto ports that others cannot replicate elsewhere.

Interesting to see a tasting note on a non-Portuguese port. I half thought it was sacrilegious.

Many non-Portuguese ports are sweeter and fruitier in style and are often made with non-traditonal grapes however not all are "saccharin sweet" as you put it. Many do a very good job of replicating the port style. There are examples of non-Portuguese ports being drier and of Portuguese ones being relatively sweet.

I can recall one time where a Portuguese port, the '00 Quinta do Valle Maria, served blind in it's youth, was guessed by all except one to be a new world port. More recently, an '87 Sevenhill VP (CLare Valley, Australia), over 20 years old and served blind, was almost immediately considered by all to be a real vintage port. When the tasters started debating the vintage and discussing whether it was an English or Portuguese house I had to say, much to their surprise, "who said it was old world?"

Cheers...............................Mahmoud.