For The Love Of Port

2009 Port Gala
Friday, January 30th, Colheita tasting
Flight 2 - 1953 Royal Oporto, 1955 Burmester, 1957 Porto Rocha, 1963 Niepoort

Niepoort Colheita
bottled in 1986

A muted tawny color in the glass, with some unexpected sediment. One could almost describe it as dull and lifeless looking, but that sounds far worse than it actually is. It just doesn't have that bright and cheery twinkle.

Faint processed sugar in the mouth. It has a hard edge, but is somehow simultaneously flat. Not a lot of depth. A bit hollow. A brief flash of green wood in the late palate, and if you search hard there's some vanilla in there as well.

This just "feels" like an off bottle, though I can't really explain why.

It was not in top form although a little better than you described, imo.

Last night I had another and it was a pristine bottle that sat in the same cellar since the mid-1980s. Great showing indeed. A couple of people had it as their favorite of all 15 bottles of 1963s. Initially cloudy and very light in color when I decanted it (along with all other bottles), by the time my glass was empty, this was a clear and medium ruby appearance. A very notable change had taken place in that regard, which was discussed by the group.

Roy,
DId you have a Vintage Port or a Colheita in ATL? I ask because Trip J. lists this as a VP.

Ooops, of course it was a VP not a Colheita, as we had a broad horizontal of 1963s.