For The Love Of Port

1992 Quinta do Vesuvio Port – my first look at this wine as I figured it was time to assess it for aging. Dark wine with clear edges, a ripe sweet nose, a tad spirity at this point and on the sweet side, but good balancing acidity. Quite good. I shall not open another bottle for maybe five years or so. Difficult vintage with close to drought conditions. Decanted for three hours. I like to leave some in the decanter to take another look the next day but the greedy buggers drank it all up when my back was turned!

Bill Spohn wrote: but the greedy buggers drank it all up when my back was turned!

When you put a nice Port out there you've got to watch those buggers

On a serious note. This VP has seemingly gone through some stages over the years of being average to great and back to average. I suspect it's now back in an awkward stage and may need to be left alone for a few more years. Guess time will tell.

This has always been an odd duck as Andy alluded to. It is the first vintage of Vesuvio that showed the lowest level of Douro bake. Those preceding vintages showed a lot more of that character. Then the Symingtons skipped the 1993 of course, and the first INCREDIBLE Vesuvio, 1994 was born and has been a crowd favorite worldwide and changed the fortunes of this brilliant SQ property. Whether the 1992 will last 40 years is certainly in question, but up until that point, this Port will certainly be worth of patience until it hits 30 in a few years. We can judge after that. I think I only have one or two left in my cellar.