For The Love Of Port

Smith Woodhouse 1984 LBV

Inspired by Todd, I picked up a bottle of this LBV, bottled in 1988 and unfiltered.

Light red/pink upon decanting off of tons of sediment (the amount of sediment is similar to a 1960s-1970s VP). A light bouquet of flowers, with violets predominating. The first sip is a little rough with some heat and a slight medicinal taste (eucalyptus?). Not much fruit yet.

After two hours in the decanter some of the heat is gone/starting to integrate, and some more fruit is coming through, although it’s still a little reminiscent of a tawny port.

24 hours on: The aroma of violets is even more predominant. Smoothed out a bit, but still not much fruit on the palate.

26 hours on: The heat is now gone, smooth, with a good nose. Lot's of tawny character.

The end result: This was best at the last time point, after the alcohol was fully integrated. Not a fantastic wine, but an interesting experience to taste another "ancient" LBV. In the end I would rate this in the bottom quartile or maybe a little better compared to all the Ports I'm likely to have this year, so a 2 or 3 on the Tom scale. It seems unlikely to get better over time, so my final rating would be:

3-2

Jay

Finally got around to opening this one up huh Jay?

I was wondering if your bottle would yield similar results to mine. Sounds like it did.

I would be interested in trying the same wine from a different source to see if there was a potential storage issue in the supply chain Beltramos may have gotten this lot from.

It was good, but not fruity - not what I was expecting from an LBV, even of this age.

Todd

Yes, but keep in mind that bottle has got 23 years of age on it. Even second labels, to call them that (i.e. Noval Silval, Vau Vintage, etc.) are designed to be mid-term drinkers (10-20ish years) while the big boys are....well becoming big boys. At 23 years old for an LBV, I would expect the fruit to be fading and starting to turn to the tawny side. Remember, around 25 years most VPs are starting to drink at there best, second labels have peaked and some already on the slow downhill slide, and LBV's should be on the decline (obviously a generic analogy there, but you get the idea).

Jay Powers wrote: 3-2

Is this JP's first published score?

Derek

Derek

No, I have written a few in my notes here. One time I even wrote both a Tom/Broadbent/Parker triple. I'll have to find my old notes on the site and transfer them to the TN section.

Todd

I have had one other very old LBV, which was not tawny at all (and very nice!). And I doubt that the Warre 95 or Smith Woodhouse 92 will be so tawny 10 years from now. I agree that it would be interesting to source another and try it.

Currently I have a small collection of LBV's that I favor (the above two plus the Niepoort 96 and 99) that I plan to save for tasting about 10, 15, and 20 years from now. A long time to wait for the experience, but I suspect that they would be pretty hard to source at those points in the future!

Jay

Jay Powers wrote:I have had one other very old LBV, which was not tawny at all (and very nice!). And I doubt that the Warre 95 or Smith Woodhouse 92 will be so tawny 10 years from now. I agree that it would be interesting to source another and try it.

Currently I have a small collection of LBV's that I favor (the above two plus the Niepoort 96 and 99) that I plan to save for tasting about 10, 15, and 20 years from now. A long time to wait for the experience, but I suspect that they would be pretty hard to source at those points in the future!

Jay, I picked up the last bottle of '92 SW LBV at a local store quite recently. I am searching for more so that I may open this bottle and try it, and then leave one for another 10 years, to bring it up to the same age of the bottle I tried while in California. I would be interesting to see if there will be a dramatic difference. Same reason why I want to find another bottle of the '84 from a different supply.

The Warre's LBV is almost impossible to find around here. Tried several stores, but they may not bring it in. Same with the Niepoort. Apparently there is an importer in Vancouver who brings in all the Niepoort stuff into Canada and he likes it alot so keeps the majority of it local. :?

Todd

This thread inspired me to pop an SW 1994 LBV.

Nice bouquet, bit young and raw, rather feeble finish - but virtually no trace of the 'LB' bit - no oxidative characteristics to speak of - it comes over simply as a poor relation to the regular vintage.

Anyone know how the SW LBV stocks spend their pre-bottled years?

Tom