For The Love Of Port

I found a couple of bottles of this at a local merchant friend's place here deep in the wilderness of East Parker County, Texas.
I decanted for 5 hours. It started off a little hot upon opening but with some nice fruit. Not too complex. Nice pale ruby color. It really never developed much. The decanting helped smooth it out. It was pleasant enough but not nearly on a par with the 77 or 85. The cork was not in very good shape. Could be an off bottle but 78 is not a great vintage. I will try the other bottle soon. 82 points.

I've tasted this from a magnum with the winemaker 2 years ago in Montreal. It is my birthyear and I don't think I will buy one bottle. They were selling it for 300$ the magnum... crazy! This was ok, but not great, still a ruby color, but nose and mouth were showing too much alcool and not much complexity. The best vintage I've taste so far from Ferreira is their 1982. The 2000 is very nice too but too early to speculate on it.

Thanks for the TN, Richard!

Fred, what other '78s have you tried? Any recommendations?

I haven't taste many 78, I think that Roy already wrote that the Vargellas 78 was the best of the Vintage. Nacional is ok but be careful on how much you spend on it as it is probably not a great QPR.

If you can find the 78 Colheita from Niepoort it is clearly the best I have taste from this year. You can look at my TN in this forum.

I have a Martinez and Kopke from this year but have'nt tried them yet

I doubt I'll ever try the '78 Nacional, Fred - the price is too steep for me.

I've only tasted 3 VPs from this year: I found the Niepoort '78 VP to be quite good, I gave it 87 points, but it is one to drink now. The Guimaraens (85) has a bit more fruit, but is noticably simpler. The only other '78 I've tasted was the Bomfim (84): fading, but nice.

Colheita 1978: just the Kopke - the '01-bottling was very, very impressive, but the two times I've tasted the '02-bottling the nose was marked by a lot of VP: disappointing.

Frederick,

Have you had the 1978 Nacional?

Stevie, you mean VA, right?

Not yet Roy, but I will surely someday hopefully at the Quinta do Noval with good company :)

Yes Ronnie, of course! Bad typo on my part.

Roy,

I took delivery of some port today including a Nacional 78. Thinking of having it for Christmas - any good?

Derek

Derek, from what I was told at Noval and from Roy's tasting notes, the 78 offers a great QPR for a Nacional but you don't have to expect from it to be extraordinary.

At Noval, for the same price, you have the 83, this is why I did not buy any even though it is my birth year.