For The Love Of Port

Bottled in 2013. I've had a lot of this over the past 10 or so months. This bottle was noticeably "flatter" tasting than others. While it had good brown sugar, toffee, dried walnuts, and orange peel, it did not have that crisp acidity that prior bottles have had. There also was a lot more spirit showing in this bottle. Not corked, and it almost seems that the cork didn't seal correctly and allowed just a touch more air in without leaking. Regardless, not a normal representative bottle that is for sure.
82 Points

:-(


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Sucks, but bound to happen eventually. Oh well.

I've had some odd variation out if the Premier Cru bottles as well. Most are great, but every once in a while (maybe 1 in 10-12?) I get one like you describe - just flat and uninspired. My first 68 Colheita was that way, and one 64 Branco was that way as well.

Oh well. Still a great deal!

Glenn E. wrote:I've had some odd variation out if the Premier Cru bottles as well. Most are great, but every once in a while (maybe 1 in 10-12?) I get one like you describe - just flat and uninspired. My first 68 Colheita was that way, and one 64 Branco was that way as well.

Oh well. Still a great deal!

Many (most?) they sold were just starting to get long in the tooth bottling date wise. I'd guess the older they get the more chance of bottle variation, as I've generally found that their Tawny's show better closer to the date of bottling.

I've had some odd variation out if the Premier Cru bottles as well. Most are great, but every once in a while (maybe 1 in 10-12?) I get one like you describe - just flat and uninspired. My first 68 Colheita was that way, and one 64 Branco was that way as well.

Funny thing, I agree 100% as having just finished a slew of TN's written in recent weeks, months for the newsletter to come out by Monday, my Krohn notes show this exact dynamic.

Roy Hersh wrote:

I've had some odd variation out if the Premier Cru bottles as well. Most are great, but every once in a while (maybe 1 in 10-12?) I get one like you describe - just flat and uninspired. My first 68 Colheita was that way, and one 64 Branco was that way as well.

Funny thing, I agree 100% as having just finished a slew of TN's written in recent weeks, months for the newsletter to come out by Monday, my Krohn notes show this exact dynamic.

I'm leaning toward bottling date issues. IIRC the 1968 was bottled around 8 years ago. That's getting pretty long in bottle for them. The 30 year was 2013. So still recent enough that it shouldn't have issues unless due to a faulty cork. The '64 white was also bottled quite some time ago (8-10 years for most) and I've found over the years these are now showing variation. I'd recommend drinking these up in the relative near term, as in the next couple years.

It just seems like a pretty big cliff to be solely a bottling date issue. I haven't had any "in between" bottles yet... they've either been great or completely flat and uninspiring.

They're definitely getting long in the tooth for Krohn, though, so I'm sure that bottling date will soon be an issue even if there's also something else going on with the Premier Cru bottles. So yeah, I'll be drinking these regularly over the next couple of years.

Glenn E. wrote:It just seems like a pretty big cliff to be solely a bottling date issue. I haven't had any "in between" bottles yet... they've either been great or completely flat and uninspiring.

They're definitely getting long in the tooth for Krohn, though, so I'm sure that bottling date will soon be an issue even if there's also something else going on with the Premier Cru bottles. So yeah, I'll be drinking these regularly over the next couple of years.

Andy, thanks for starting this discussion. Mine '64's were all purchased from PC, so I'm going to start opening them too...and hopefully enjoying them

Lindsay E. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:It just seems like a pretty big cliff to be solely a bottling date issue. I haven't had any "in between" bottles yet... they've either been great or completely flat and uninspiring.

They're definitely getting long in the tooth for Krohn, though, so I'm sure that bottling date will soon be an issue even if there's also something else going on with the Premier Cru bottles. So yeah, I'll be drinking these regularly over the next couple of years.

Andy, thanks for starting this discussion. Mine '64's were all purchased from PC, so I'm going to start opening them too...and hopefully enjoying them

When I was in store last year they had 5 bottles of the 64 left. I probably should have bought them all, but because of the bottling date I only purchased 2. The first was perfect, the second I'll find out soon. Looking back, it was priced where I should have bought them all...

Edward J wrote:

Lindsay E. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:It just seems like a pretty big cliff to be solely a bottling date issue. I haven't had any "in between" bottles yet... they've either been great or completely flat and uninspiring.

They're definitely getting long in the tooth for Krohn, though, so I'm sure that bottling date will soon be an issue even if there's also something else going on with the Premier Cru bottles. So yeah, I'll be drinking these regularly over the next couple of years.

Andy, thanks for starting this discussion. Mine '64's were all purchased from PC, so I'm going to start opening them too...and hopefully enjoying them

When I was in store last year they had 5 bottles of the 64 left. I probably should have bought them all, but because of the bottling date I only purchased 2. The first was perfect, the second I'll find out soon. Looking back, it was priced where I should have bought them all...

Yes that was a darn good deal, I bought a lot of them.

Andy,

I have not necessarily found that with Krohn in the past. I have had other bottles that had older bottling dates from them and it really didn't matter as their Ports were so acidic, they remained lively.

I lean more towards suspect storage conditions in the cellars of Premier Cru. That makes far more sense than Krohn not handling 8 years of bottle age. I can't think of any producers that usually show "poorly" after just 8 years. "Not as good" as when bottles are fresh ... sure, I'll give you that; but KROHN ... and 8 years in bottle, to fall apart like some we've all had, nah.

Maybe when they ran out of money some years back, they turned off the cooling units in their storage? Who knows.

Roy Hersh wrote: Maybe when they ran out of money some years back, they turned off the cooling units in their storage? Who knows.

The 64 along with the others were out on the racks in the store, room temperature. They had a very nice, huge rare wine room, but filled with the expensive stuff. I imagine at that price point for the 64 it didn't warrant proper cellaring.

Edward J wrote:The 64 along with the others were out on the racks in the store, room temperature.

All of it? They had cases of the stuff, so surely some of it must have been stored in a warehouse or back room. (Which might not have been any better as far as storage conditions go.)