For The Love Of Port

8-5-09
We opened and drank directly a 1963 Warre's VP at the restaurant on Wednesday. ($310 open-bottle price)
Decanted through a coffee filter into decanter and rebottled.
There was a bottle of 1991 ($115 OBP) (opened 8-2-09) belonging to the "Gang of Port"* so we were able to compare.

Oddly the 1991 seemed smoother - not so hot in the mouth. If there is any 1963 left on Sunday, we will be able to see if a little air (recorked with no gas) makes a difference.

*Take-off on "Gang of Pour", which is a take-off on the "Gang of Four".

If the 1963 was pop-n-pour, then it's not too surprising to me that the 1991 seemed smoother. The '63 needs several hours in a decanter after opening in order to integrate and mellow a bit, so it was probably still pretty rough coming straight out of the bottle.

The 1991 by comparison, having been open for 3 days, might have been on the downhill side of sufficient air time even if the restaurant had been refrigerating it for you. Meaning it might have been heading for "flat" and so could have seemed very mellow next to a freshly opened bottle.

It'll be interesting to see how the '63 tastes on Sunday (assuming there's any left)!

Glenn E. wrote:It'll be interesting to see how the '63 tastes on Sunday (assuming there's any left)!

Pat-the-Bartender seems a little uncomfortable with the idea of putting a $300 bottle behind the bar with the vague instruction: "Anybody who knows to ask for it can have a taste." I suspect there will be at least SOME of it left.

Hopefully some is still left on Sunday for you to try. Glenn is right about it needing decanting. Many old VP's, actually most, don't show their best when popped-and-poured. After being bottled up for so long they need time to open up and integrate. While younger ones, with their ripe fruit still in tack, typically will show better early on when popped-and-poured.

Sunday (8-10-2009) (1963 decanted, rebottled and recorked; 1991 recorked)

There was about 3" of both the 1963 and the 1991 left. The '63 was still notably "biteier" than the '91. No "off" tastes, but pleasantly sharp in the mouth. The '63 is how I like a VP: almost like a tawny, with the slightly astringent, nut-like flavor under the aromatics. In the '91, the fruit is still dominent - tangy.

There was still about an inch left in both bottles. I put a masking tape label on the bottles, asking that they be saved for me. I will get them photographed and posted when we (if we get to) finish them off Wednesday.

There actually was a little left of each. As promised, here's a picture. I will also post good label shots to PORTraits. (For some reason the FTLOP uploader registers file sizes as MUCH larger than my Mac; I carefully reduced this to 254kb but when I tried to upload, it claimed it was 314 kb. So... I deleted the special ftlop version and made another even smaller.)

The ports: both were getting a little tired. Still better than plonk, but without the edge that made them so good the first few times we tasted.