2003 Croft Vintage Port

Robert O. · Post by **Robert O.** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:57 pm

Surprisingly little alcohol on the nose.

+5.5 hours -- almost no heat and already very smooth. Chocolate, blackberry and strawberry. Tannins and fruit are well balanced. You can tell this baby has decades and decades ahead of it. I think it is still a bit closed and needs some more decanting. I think this may be awesome in a couple of hours or maybe even tomorrow. More later...

Robert O. · Post by **Robert O.** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:44 am

+20 -- had a little sip of this to see how it was coming along pre-football and it has opened up a great deal. Massive amounts of fruit although I am noticing a bit more heat now. Looking forward to seeing how it is tonight.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 5:01 pm

Robert,

Are you talking about 20+ hours in an open decanter, or that amount of time has passed since you first opened the bottle?

Robert O. · Post by **Robert O.** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:24 pm

Roy, 20 hours in an open decanter at 55 degrees. The bottle was decanted immediately upon opening

Richard Henderson · Post by **Richard Henderson** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:26 pm

I think the only time I ever opened a port so young was the 1985 Graham's which we opened around 1990 or 1991.
It was like drinking concentrated grape must with some everclear in it. It was just too intense to be pleasant. I would imagine that a 2003 would way too young.
We did not allow our 85 to decant that long however.

Robert O. · Post by **Robert O.** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:52 pm

Richard, Roy seemed to indicate that while extremely young, this port was pretty approachable for a young port at the moment so given that i had bought a fair number of bottles I thought I'd try it. And, in fact, it was very approachable, although as you noted, extremely young. The rest will be cellared for quite a while.