For The Love Of Port

A bottle recently acquired (along with sixteen others..) with an interesting provenance - it formally belonged to the late Lord Lichfield, a cousin of the Queen, and a respected photographer.

I secured three of the four Port lots from the sale of his cellar at Christies. All the bottles were in excellent condition, with good fill levels and intact labels.

Decanted last night.

When first decanted, the wine was a bright rose red in the decanter, but then quickly darkened. In the glass it is a fine ruby colour with a clear meniscus.

On the nose there is an excess of spirit, otherwise a light floral bouquet.

On the palate the wine is surprisingly youthful, and quite tannic still - one could even argue that it is not fully mature, but I doubt it will improve much. It is light, and a little over spiritous.

I'm wondering if a little more time in decanter will pay dividends, so I'll wait till tomorrow before venturing a score.

Tom

36 hours on...

I've noted the curious phenomenon of wines darkening after they were decanted before, but never on this scale...

This wine went from rose to ruby in decanter, and has now gone to deep ruby in glass as welll

At first sip it looked thin and very pale - almost watery - now it looks full bodied..

On the palate there is also a change - the spirit has now integrated.

On the nose it is still quite modest, but with a hint of the low - earthy? - note that seems to be the signature of the 75's.

On the palate it is very respectable - the fire has all but gone and the finish seems lacking at first take - but then comes back to remind you!

To score:

There are many better wines out there, and many worse - but for immediate gratification this is a close call between 5 and 6..

.. I'll call 5

Where's it going?

There is a real possibility that this wine has a little further to go - but this bottle may have matured a little slower in his Lordship's cool cellar..

So my score is 5-5

Tom