LABEL BIAS and PORT WINE

[Glenn E.]

Roy,

My post was not meant as a criticism, just an observation. Or perhaps it is a criticism of the producers, who strive to maintain a "house style" that apparently is rather meaningless.

If people who have devoted their lives to tasting and who are acknowledged experts in the field cannot reliably identify a producer's wine in a blind taste test... then that producer's wine isn't as unique or as memorable as the producer would like for us to think it is.

The only wine I think I'd have a chance of identifying with any regularity is Merlot, but you could probably fool me very easily by having Merlot blends in the tasting. There's just something about Merlot that makes it stand out to me even though I don't drink wine.

What does matter is this: do you like the wine or not.

Absolutely. I sort of enjoy the fact that I like to drink dessert wines at the "wrong" time - with the meal. For me a Sauternes, sweet Riesling, or old Tawny Port complements and enhances a meal. Why wait for dessert?

[Moses Botbol]

I like to see what I am tasting. I've ranked things out of whack to what some of the experts say, so I do not hold much prejudice. I also do not know what the experts have ranked something before tasting. Generally, our tasting our done with a certain subject; either shipper or similar/same vintage. Since we are using Julian's placemats, we already know what is what.

[Roy Hersh]

So as always, we're sitting around the table at Niepoort and told to guess what is in the glass. Given the breadth of possibilities while at Niepoort, it could be virtually anything and I would not be surprised. We went around the table and I was last. Guesses were all over the board. It seemed from the color and maturation that it was a bit older and secondary nuances prevailed. I've had the 1970 many times and this was not quite up to that quality (which is very good in my estimation) but it was not anything older and I could not think of anything outside of his Colheitas that could fit, but it did not taste like a Colheita so I went with my initial thought and stated 1970 Vintage Port. Of course, I was not close. It was the 1982 Niepoort VP that was one of the last vintages that Dirk's father made. The humbling experience of blind tasting!