For The Love Of Port

2004 Croft lbv (unfiltered, 375 ml, t-stopper)

Pop and pour with no decant or breathing time (so not ideal conditions), though no real deposit left in the glass - even on the last pour (albeit teeth/lips more noticeably stained than usual...).

i thought this was a great effort, prominent fruit on nose, sweet and fairly mellow in the mouth and slight delay before it gets going with a bit of a kick and and pleasant, lengthy aftertaste that I could feel right in the throat. Very moreish - gone within 45 minutes!

Not quite up with the Noval/Niepoort '03 lbv, but i certainly prefer this to the Taylor '03 lbv or Dow 03/04 lbvs, and I'm seriously regretting the fact I only bought one of these when on special at Tesco for £3.99 last year. Significantly better than the similarly priced Croft Indulgence (finest reserve). A quick look on cellartracker/google reveals others are not quite so positive, but it was "one of those weeks" so I will have to find another bottle to verify that relatively it really was that good. 90 pts.

Two other thoughts emerge:

i) i don't think I've ever had a Croft port on one of my wish-lists - maybe time to re-assess why i have been overlooking this particular house.
ii) although much maligned, I actually think there is a place for 375ml bottles - they are great for opening mid-week (£4 does not seem extravagant for a couple of glasses in front of the TV) and they offer a firm limit on the amount you drink when you need to be compos mentis the next morning (however hard i try, my intended two-night 50:50 split on a full bottle usually ends up 70:30!).

Rob,

Thanks for your TN. I bought around 70 of these over the period leading up to Christmas and entirely agree with your evaluation. "gone within 45 minutes" is a phenomenon I recognise very well as it has occurred for me a number of times with this wine - Most of my bottles are now in storage to prevent me from nailing all of them in quick succession and it will be interesting to see how they mature. It has also given me some high hopes for the case of 12x75cl bottles of the Croft LBV 2002 Unfiltered that I have in storage but have never tasted.

I have noticed that Tesco still seem to have a large stock of these back up at the full price of £8. I would not be at all surprised if we see the same offer at £4 again sometime this year so it's worth keeping your eye on those sheves

Derek

Rob,

Nice note! Croft has been on an uptick since 1991, which was the first truly solid Croft in many years. It was followed up by a solid effort in 1994, was good but nothing out of the ordinary in 1997 and then in 2000 produced a fine 92 pointer. The Fladgate Partnership purchased Croft (along w/Delaforce) in the autumn of 2001 and began fixing up the old lagares and replanting, almost immediately at Quinta da Roeda. By 2003, with the move back to 100% foot treading and change in viticulture, David Guimaraens made a Croft ('03) which I called in my Forecast of that vintage, the best since 1945, big words and I still believe 'em. 2005 Quinta da Roeda was far better then 2004, but proved (at least for my palate) to be one of the top VPs of a very under-rated vintage. After seeing 2003 and 2005, I believed that the next "generally declared" vintage of Croft would be a home run, but I did not find Croft to my liking in 2007. I admit I was a bit surprised, but had over a half dozen bottles before I was convinced. Anyway, I do believe that Croft is one to watch out for and 2004 LBV sounds like not only a very solid bottling, but in the UK, a phenomenal bargain. Thanks again for your impression.