For The Love Of Port

This will evolve over the next 8 hours, so I will post notes sequentially to avoid having to remember things through the haze of 75+ bottles we will share this afternoon.

Here's the first installment:

I decanted the Quinta de Vargellas at 8:00. Roy said 9:00, but I had to be out at 9:00 so I did it earlier. Hand decanted with an electric lantern beneath. Color very dark but clear through the neck. Sediment began to creap into the neck at the end so I stopped and left about 1-1/2 ounces in the bottle. Poured the dregs into a glass and tasted. Surprisingly smooth with no tannic edge, but the fruit is yet to appear. At 9:30, the fruit is coming out but so is the alcohol, so it's a bit hot but not obnoxiously so. Cherry red fruit and chocolate on the palate. I think that by 3:00 when we drink this, it will be a real bargain for the incredibly cheap price I paid for it.

It's 10:40 and I just took another sip of the dregs. This is really rounding out beautifully. Very smooth with just a bit of tannioc bite left. Fruit is galloping to the front quickly with that characteristic Touriga Nacional flavor that you get even in dry TN wines.

For those of you who have never attended the Peter Lugeresque dinner in New York, well, you loose. There was 77 Dows, 77 Delaforce, a 76 (or 78) Quinta de Vargellas, two 20 year tawnies, etc. 56 people. Over 75 wines. My 95 Vargellas was very nice, but accurate notes after so much wine is impossible. I have some left over for tomorrow, but for now let's just say cherry fruit, chocolate, very smooth but a baby compared to the 1978.

Cool note Jay. Hopefully you can post some notes on the other wines you drank...sounds like it was a great time.

I've been running around for the last week or so, and thus have not had a chance to finish the bottle. It was decanted on January 27 into a sealed decanter and today is February 5. It's been in the refrigerator since the evening of the 27th. I decided to take it out and pour a glass. Wonderful cherry nose and clear clean cherry flavor. Not tart, not too sweet, more like a black cherry in a high quality chocolate covered ncherry. And there is now a bit of roasted nut on the palate, but just a tiny bit. The mouth feel is very smooth and silky, but thick. The only criticism of the wine is at the back of the mouth there is a tiny drop of bitterness as you swallow that lingers in the mouthy. Without that, I would say 91-92 points, but that's got to drop it down to 89 pts. Still excellent, but one obvious flaw means it doesn't get into the 90s.