For The Love Of Port

Well folks, I'm back. After nearly three weeks without opening a bottle of port (I always had someone else do it for me!) I have a glass in front of me.

This is a Sandeman 1977, decanted easily off its sediment nearly 6 hours ago. It has lost its fierce spiritiness over that time and has developed a fantastic nose of dusty roses - really perfumed and not like anything that I've experienced before.

This is still a rich ruby red in the glass, clear and sparkling. Surprisingly thick into the mouth, bringing an initial sweetness of thick redcurrants and a hint of bitters. The flavours develop in the mouth and I can just pick up the start of the brown sugar of old age but there is still lots of fruit here. This is really good. A swallow and the tastes in the mouth fade, but then the aftertaste starts to come through - liquorice and aniseed and brown sugar - and stays for a very long time ...... at least as long as I can manage to wait before taking another sip of this beautiful and elegant wine.

In my personal opinion I would say that this bottle is now drinking at its peak. It is superb now and I would rate this at 92/100 or 7/7 on Tom's scale. I would be very surprised if this did not prove to be one of the lower top quartile wines that I have this year. And all this from a wine that does not seem to have a great reputation!

Maybe I am even being a bit stingy?

Alex

I just had this wine and it was reviewed in the Dec. FTLOP and you liked it a little bit more than I did. Maybe it was due to the fact that you were jonesing for a VP? Welcome back.

Now what the heck did you go over to that other place for? Curiosity?

There may have been a tinge of relief influencing my view of the wine, but I was really surprised at how good this was. Between Suckling's (very old) note and your review in December, I was not expecting much.

But I thought this was delicious and perfect for drinking this year to celebrate a 30th birthday.

And I must admit that being on the wagon was not much fun. No alcohol at all for three weeks other than a few glasses with Moses and Sean and a half bottle of Leoville Barton '96 shared with my wife. Its good to be back :)

Alex