For The Love Of Port

Cross-posting from TPF, which is where this Old & Odd tasting was organized.

1873 Schofield Vintage Port

Look: Faintly cloudy, medium tawny color. Lighting was poor, so nothing more specific.

Nose: Soft sugars, and after a time sitting in the glass some smoke was also noticeable. Faintly madeira-like to me.

Taste: Gone, some sour, not good. Very dry. Somewhat watery. Almost peaty like a scotch. To me it was clearly past its prime, and I went to considerable effort to find some way to describe it in a non-negative manner. It was certainly better if tasted on its own (not following another Port), but even then could at best be described as merely drinkable (barely) or somewhat fair. Following another Port it was foul and awful.

This is now the oldest port I have ever tried!

Its always a crap-shoot with wines that old, sometimes you win and sometimes you don't. Bummer to hear it didn't turn out good, but its always fun to try them this old.

Well hopefully you will try not only old Ports, but good old Ports or great ones too.

So, what can you share about Schofield as a shipper?

Roy Hersh wrote:So, what can you share about Schofield as a shipper?

There was some discussion about that later in the evening, but sadly it didn't register.

Might have had something to do with the 1+ bottle of Port I'd just finished consuming! :blah:

(Hey, that's a LOT for me!)

Yes it certainly is. I was wondering how you were going to deal with that and hoped you would not have a "Luc" experience!

Now what do we need to do to prepare you for the onslaught of bottles which is going to take place here in January

I'll just need more practice! :help:

I have a couple of special sessions planned already - one with my family over Thanksgiving and one with my wife's family over Christmas. Neither of those will result in a full bottle consumed by your truly, but they'll at least help me work on my Port stamina.

Thanksgiving will probably be the better of the two... I'm taking a 1963 Fonseca VP and a 1966 Rocha Colheita back with me. Christmas may be limited to "only" a 1985 Fonseca since I've been so overwhelmingly instructed to try one while they're still too young in order to see how they evolve over time, but I may try one of my odd 1970s (Martinez, Ferreira) then too. We'll see... it will probably depend on how many other Port drinkers there are in my wife's family!

Glenn E. wrote:I'll just need more practice! :help:

In that case start by drinking a 1/2 bottle a night for the next month :twisted: :help: :devil:

If I lived in Seattle Glenn, I would help you with this task!!!