For The Love Of Port

I purchased this bottle at auction because I had a glass of the '63 in Porto and really liked it. This particular bottle was bottled in 1997, so it's been in the bottle for 12 years. I opened the bottle early in the day expecting it too need some decanter time to open up before sharing it with Roy, but that turns out to have been a mistake. I had a glass immediately after decanting, and it was vibrant and luscious. By evening... well, the tasting note is from that evening. The Romariz was 4th out of 5 glasses, following a '95 Trockenbeerenauslese, a 2007 Kopke VP cask sample, and an Alambre 20-yr old Moscatel de Setubal. It was followed by a Kopke 40-yr Old Tawny Port. That's pretty tough company, and I think the Moscatel and 2007 Kopke helped reinforce the impression that the Romariz was lacking.

1963 Romariz Colheita
bottled in 1997

Faintly cloudy in the glass. Medium dark tawny, more brown than red.

The nose smells faintly of stewed tomatoes, but is otherwise so subdued that it's hard to smell anything. There's a little bit of alcohol, but not in a medicinal way. There is possibly a very faint madeira-like smell there, but that may just be my nose tonight due to the other drinks.

Smoothly sweet in the mouth, some heat, some almond paste and vanilla, and possibly some coffee. There's not much there, which I blame on it being in a flight with some very powerful drinks. Roy thinks it has just closed down.

Some light grape stem in the finish, which is mildly warm and otherwise pretty nondescript.

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Earlier in the afternoon, the nose smelled of oak, cinnamon, and honey. The mouth was impressive though not explosively powerful and showed sweet spices, vanilla, oak, and honey. What a difference several hours can make! If you have a bottle of this, DO NOT DECANT. Pop it open, pour your glasses, drink and enjoy. Even 5-6 hours in the decanter is too many... it should be consumed immediately for best results.

Just another quick update... I still have some of this bottle left and it's still disappointing. At this point I can tell that it's been open too long - it has that flat feeling about it - but it just never reached any kind of peak. It was clearly at its best right after opening and it was downhill all the way from there.

I also still have some of the Kopke 40-yr old left and it's still grand. The contrast between the two is amazing, and the gap widens every day.

Which just makes me sadder about the Romariz, because the glass I had in Porto and the glass I had right after opening this bottle were both very good. Oh well, live and learn. If I ever see another bottle of this I'll know better than to decant it.

I think something was wrong with your bottle. You saw my post and notes a month ago. This stuff was still good a couple of days later.

I think you must be right, Richard, but I don't know what it would have been.

The first glass out of the bottle was great - it lived up to your notes and my memories from Porto - but once I got the bottle to Roy's house it tasted weak and bland. I thought it was just in comparison to the 4 other wines we were tasting because all 4 of them were quite powerful and vibrant, but Roy thought it had just closed up tight.

Well... it never opened back up. At least I did get the one good glass out of the bottle to refresh my memory from Porto.

12 years inbottle is a lot for a colheita IMO. who knows how it was stored before you got it. I know there is a debate about this, but with a few exceptions I feel most colheita's show their best closest to the date of bottling. They tend to lose that freshness you've described as they age. I suspect the initial taste was good as it had just been opened, then as it got more air it just started a downhill slide. Just my and I could very well be wrong.

The bottle we opened was consumed within 48 hours. It never lost any power. Who really knows why there is such a variatiion of experiences? Do we have a shrug smilie?