ThePortForum.com

+ 15 mins Hint of garrigue, plus some not-too-sweet boiled sweet, on the nose. Congruent palate, hybrid of herbal liqueur and a old fashioned cough sweet. Also some rose hip on the finish. 'Granny's patent medicine' commented my co-taster, 'and very nice too'. + 90 mins More cherries on the nose, th...

@ Alex - Would be really nice to get Johnny Graham out to play. The 2000 Churchill was absolutely gobsmacking when I had it early this year.

Grande order placed. It is one of a very small number of luggage lust objects for me and I have wanted one for years and my existing suitcase is on its last legs and I'm off to Madeira for January and... so many reasons...

Middling red, looks mature. Hint of violet on the nose then gorgeous red fruits, congruent throughout, from nose to palate to finish. Spicy. Bags of time left. Very good port indeed, a fine advertisement for the 1994 vintage.

Consumed 1900-2130 24/11/20

Nose quite dumb. Exuberant red fruit on front palate. Waves of fresh blackcurrant towards the end, and on the warming the finish. Attractive port, but very young.

Consumed 1900-2130 24/11/20

That was a great fun evening, with informative and amusing commentary from Sophia and the audience, and some delicious ports. It was lovely to see you all.

+ 2 hrs Full deep rich red, barely paling at the rim. Quite subdued nose, mainly of mint. In the mouth, voluptuous, no other word quite captures the big velvety pillows of lush red fruit. Full, then a flash of cointreau towards the finish, then mulled orange in red wine stuffed with cloves, then a l...

I'd definitely go for tonight.

I believe for the 1991 horizontal tasting we double-decanted everything the night before at Tom's request - and the QdlR was one of the three winners of that. So, I've just decanted a 1991 QdlR, ostensibly for tomorrow night, although there's some sampling going on.

@JacobH - H&H 15 yr old Verdelho is £20.99 in Waitrose which is very fair.

H&H 15 year old Verdelho, about 25 quid for a half litre.

+ 18 hrs Much improved. Nose more lightweight-port-like, a touch more garrigue and white pepper. Classical mature port rose-hip front palate. A bit of plum and molasses towards the spicy finish, all rather longer and more congruent than yesterday evening. This is really quite decent now, a very plea...

Decanted very clean. A delightful clear mid-garnet, a really good-looking wine. + 1 hr Pale rim. Very faint nose. A little mint and red fruit. Front palate of Werthers Original, then some tinned strawberries, a bit of heat after. Pleasant, mildly spicy and peppery (also hint of red bell pepper), but...

Glenn's response happily demonstrates that there is a madeira for every palate, which is one of the most pleasing things about it. Malvasia not being generally to my taste I have only four bottles in my Madeira collection; - a 1996 Colheita from D'Oliveira's; which is much more to my taste than the ...

@ JacobH - I'm going to be spending most of January in Madeira. Since the 1990s I have usually put in a week or two there in January but England is so grey and miserable at the moment that this time I am intending to be there almost the whole month. It will make virtual hearings more bearable. - Mad...

@rich_n - the Niepoort 2015 LBV is really very good, a significant advance on the 2014. I haven't yet seen or tried the 2016 Tom adverts to above.

@ Alex - have you had that Tesco '97? I've never tried it.

+95 hours Distinctly brown wine now. Nose interestingly maderised, an attractive (no, really) sauerkraut hint. On the palate nuts predominate with some prune and fig later. Finish long, warming, complex and dark. If more was available at a vaguely sensible price, I'd acquire more. While it's not por...

+70 hours (I should say: stored in 'fridge in original bottle throughout)

Nose similar; palate more like a sweeter madeira, or even a really serious sweeter sherry, now. This is not negative criticism. It's fascinating to drink. Finish is similar, but longer.

+48 hrs Darkened a little. Nose more redolent of rich fruits- I was helping my girlfriend make a Christmas cake earlier and the kilo of dried fruit, marinated in a a quarter-pint of each of rum and cointreau, then combined with brown sugar and half a pound of butter and slowly heated, had a similar ...

Ditto!

Further internet researches suggest three different labels exist (and at least two different bottling dates, 1981 and 1989). Mine does not feature the bottling date, which the 1981 bottling seems to. There appear to be extant 1967 and 1969 colheitas with the same style label as the one I have.

...well I presume it's a colheita, because it's a single vintage wine with no bottling date but the label looks 1980s. Not a t-cork like the another ostensibly similar bottle someone made a note on 10 years ago or more but equally definitely not a long cork. Came out more or less whole. 30 minute de...

Sorry to hear your experience was less pleasant than mine. I think it points to some bottle variation...

There's quite a bit (for a given quantity of 'quite a bit') of the Sandeman Invalid port about still, it must have been quite popular. I've seen several bottles at auction over the past few years and GN has some too. The Croft one I have not encountered!

3 x Vesuvio 1992
3 x Niepoort 1983
3 x Smith Woodhouse 1980

These are three of my 'been hanging on to see if I could pick them up at auction' ports but I had a good result on something work-related so bought some port at retail to celebrate.