For The Love Of Port

FTLOP 4th Anniversary party
Holiday Inn, Issaquah, July 30th 2009

1. 1937 Warre Reserve Tawny (Colheita) bottled 1997
2. 1963 Niepoort Colheita bottled 1986
3. 1966 Porto Rocha Colheita bottled 1997
4. 1968 Quevedo Garrafeira Particular (Colheita) bottled 1999
5. 1963 Croft Vintage Port
6. 1963 Warre Vintage Port
7. 1966 Dow Vintage Port
8. 1967 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port

1966 Dow Vintage Port

Color: Dark red, almost garnet. There's not enough blue in it to say it has purple tones, but there's enough to make the red deeper than ruby.
Nose: Mild alcohol, dust/minerals, and some strawberry.
Palate: Some heat, some grip, and pleasant mild red fruits. Overly ripe raspberries and ripe strawberries. Goes really well with the goat cheese on hand.
Finish: Pleasant and of medium length. Decent tannins and (again) mild fruit.

Score: 91 points. Easily the best of the first 3 VPs, it made me want to go back and revisit my scores from the first two. I'm pretty comfortable with this at 91, but it makes the other two 88s seem high in retrospect. There's enough grip left in this to make me believe it has another 10-15 years ahead of it.

I liked this more than you did, but its best showing was towards the very end of the night. From my cellar, I was slightly disappointed by the showing as normally I do not find the spirit at this level, but loved the finish and structure as it continued to open. Still, I've had better bottles of this one.

I did notice that it seemed to be getting better as the night went on, but I'm such a lightweight that I really don't trust my impressions of "improvement" that late into the evening. We were done with all 8 Ports by the time I started noticing the change, and there's a fine line between the Port actually getting better and the taster just getting drunker!

How would you compare '66 Dow to '63 Dow?

Normally I would say '66 is better, but the last time I had '63 Dow which I hadn't be fond of really wow'd me!

Would sure love to do a Dow vertical.

I don't think I can give an accurate comparison, as the bottles I've had so far haven't really been showing well. Given what I've had I'd say that I also like the '66 better, but my notes on the '63 that I had at this year's Port Gala indicate that the bottle seemed a little weak and flat. I actually had it last in its flight of 4 behind a Graham, a Robertson's Rabello Valente, and a Warre.