For The Love Of Port

This past weekend's FTLOP LBV Offline saw some really nice LBV's. While tasted single blind, after the reveal some showed as one would expect and some showed better than I would normally have thought. Why I love tasting blind...

Thinking about this tasting afterwards made me wonder what are people's favorite LBV they've had to date? The hard part....you can only pick ONE. So what has been your single most favorite LBV?

Heh, I was just thinking about this too.

Despite my well-known support for the 1995 Smith Woodhouse and 2003 Taylor LBVs, neither one of them is the best LBV I've ever tasted. I believe that honor goes to the 1994 Pocas that I have on my trophy shelf. An absolutely wonderful bottle of Port, and one that could easily have be mistaken for an upper tier VP. Alas, I've never seen it again.

The 1994 Pocas LBV.

Like Glenn love the 1995 Smith Woodhouse...but according to my data my favorite is the 2000 Warre's which I've had blind 4 times and scored it between 92-95 points.

If favourite is defined as one of the best I've had I would say it's the '92 Warres LBV - a powerfully built LBV and as recently as last year it was still going strong - youthful and dark.

On the other hand, if favourite is defined as the LBV most bought and drunk thus far I'd have to say it's the '94 Noval LBV - had a bottle of it years ago and thought it so nice a I went out and bought the remaining two bottles. Then a few years later I came across some more in half bottles and bought a whole case. Over the years the half bottles have evolved, with a couple of them going through an awkward clumsy phase, and are now nicely settled.

Another one might be the '03 Taylor's LBV since I really did seek them out after trying a bottle. It was head and shoulders better than the '01, '02, and '04 and eminently drinkable - tannins were really ripe and round, the palate full, and very little in the way of heat - went down a treat with little or no decanting.

Cheers......................Mahmoud.

The '92 Smith Woodhouse that we had at the 2012 FTLOP anniversary gala. That LBV stood up alongside the Taylor and Fonseca 92 VPs and was even WOTN for at least one attendee. Only wish I could've gotten more of it at the time.

My favourite LBVs are the Warre traditional LBVs. I have experienced some which are as good or better - perhaps - but I can't get hold of them. For current drinking I really like the Warre 1986 LBV. It's in a really good phase at the moment.

One of my favorites so far came from a pretty poor year overall. The 2002 Vista Alegre LBV just rocked.

But even better than that and probably the best I've had, or at least I can recall, was the 2003 Niepoort LBV. I bought a bunch and put a number away for longer term cellaring. I need to fish one out sometime soon to check in on it.

Best I've had would be the Warre '81 unfiltered LBV.
Andy - we had the 2003 as part of a Niepoort LBV masterclass at the BFT recently, and although too young for current drinking (for my taste) the 2003 was notable as powerful and interesting, and I expect will be superb in another 15 years, if you can wait that long with it.

Phil W wrote:Best I've had would be the Warre '81 unfiltered LBV.
Andy - we had the 2003 as part of a Niepoort LBV masterclass at the BFT recently, and although too young for current drinking (for my taste) the 2003 was notable as powerful and interesting, and I expect will be superb in another 15 years, if you can wait that long with it.

Oh my, that long. I may need to find some other Port to keep me occupied until then.