For The Love Of Port

2009 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto (12/10/2014)
2/12/2014; Gerardi's Little Store, Dayton, OH; $33.33/750 ml; bottled 2011. Kobrand/Heidelberg. 20.5 pabv. CA 0079, LT09B; 0 84692 000630. Opened about 48 hours in advance for the Cobb Christmas Crash. Tipp Ciity. OH.

Removed from the storage unit and cork cleanly pulled with the Durand; no purple on the sides. Decanted 10 am into a glass pitcher. At 700 ml poured there are some tiny crusts,
and gently transferred into a decanter with stopper.

Optical: Purple with a lightening cherry edge [about 1 mm]; darker color not quite as dense in the Pitiless (Impitoyable). Thick sheeting suggests high extract.

Violets tailing into cherry, second sniff: add cardamom and thyme (cassis). Blackcurrant, five spices, moving into both herbs and dark fruits/berries of headscratching complexity and scintillancy. Again scents of century-old baked brick minerality, as sometimes is encountered in recently torn-down fireplaces. At 2 hours, the nose has moved into pan-roasted China tea over the violet and green lime peel scents.

At first great heat, which experience tells will mellow in a day or two. Fruits are almost impossible to dissect at this stage, but on the finish there's a hint of sappy apple juice with a hint of sweetness. The typical balance of a Taylor vintage port, moving from dryness to some sweetness now. The anthocyanins and tannins are almost completely fruit-coated now; will need time to relax a bit. The heat is down a bit at 2 hours and after a bit of swirling disappears. Ripe tannis are starting to show.

At 48 hours, just before leaving for Cobb's: Lots of integration of above, with great harmony. Cherry-mint and verbena, with medium tannins starting to integrate; at this point a bit sweeter than the average young Taylor VP. but with its typical draw-you-in finish. Will be served with Stilton and Santa fruit stickers.

Probably just too much at this stage for the uneducated palate (refers to most of the guests who sampled); however, after 6 days in refrigerator beginning a lovely process of integration--usual cherry, violets, and fennel; anise, sweet-rising sap, and fine-grained intaglio-like tannins, and fine dry finish. Leave it alone from now until 2024. Then until who knows when? I'll not outive these bottles. (97 pts.)

John,

Thank you for your extremely detailed and time elapsed impression of the Taylor. I know you don't often give scores of 97 points, so you must have loved this one!

It is GREAT to have you join us here again. You've been missed!

i usually post any TN here if it seems relevant. Perhaps I could also post some more of my voluminous sweet wine notes as I write them; they would be mostly rich-styled Germans, Austrians,'stopped' wines like French VDNs, Sauternes, Monbazillacs, and other well-made examples of 'the Sweetstuff." The above is a not atypical example of my reviewing style. Sometime I'll include 'gossipy' info about the makers and the making of the wine. Innto which forum should they be placed

Incidentally, took a taste of this on January 2, 2015, at 23 days: one can see that the meaty pepper and tannin skeleton of the Taylor VPs are the kettle in which these great old VPs are slowly simmered.

VDNs? I know of VDP and SGN. What is VDN?

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Sorry, I 'm the first one to gripe at abbreviations aimed and those 'in the know' that leave the rest of us out, or that originate on I phones texting. VDP=(French) Vins Douxes Naturels) (naturally sweet wines) are from the Languedoc and are made in technique similar to Vintage Porto. Made with white and red grapes common to the area, they can be sold quite young or aged many decades.

John Trombley wrote:Sorry, I 'm the first one to gripe at abbreviations aimed and those 'in the know' that leave the rest of us out, or that originate on I phones texting. VDP=(French) Vins Douxes Naturels) (naturally sweet wines) are from the Languedoc and are made in technique similar to Vintage Porto. Made with white and red grapes common to the area, they can be sold quite young or aged many decades.

Thanks. Now that you spelled it out, I can say I have some familiarity with those. I opened a 1959 Dom Prieuré du Monastir del Camp Rivesaltes (bottled 2013) this past weekend with friends to celebrate a birthday. I have several other Rivesaltes in the cellar and a few bottles of Banyuls.