Ok, so for almost any year there will be some debate over how great a year is or is not, such asrichmills wrote:A brace of Taylor '77. I know the reputation for problems 77 has but I've really enjoyed most of the T77 I've had and I'm hoping my good luck continues.
- 1994 - current debate over whether this is as great as had been previously expected
- 1983/5 - nope, I'm not even going there
- 1955 - I noticed recently that the FTLOP vintage port years chart only rates 1955 as 3* out or 5* for VP, which seems debateable to me, especially compared to some of the other years which gain more stars - Roy, I need to swap you my '91s for some '55s
As per richmills' comment, I have seen or heard people cast vague aspersions on 1977 as a port vintage year, and I'm not convinced that it deserves this. The 1977 vintage certainly seems to me to generally not be as good a vintage as 1970, but it does seem to comprise mostly very good wine. There are of course occasional issues with any vintage, in this case in particular for Dow 1977 due to the high incidence of TCA - though it is in my opinion a superb wine when not tainted; I would also disagree with RP and JS who both rate '77 Fonseca at the same or higher then '70 Fonseca - but this is arguing about two superb wines. Overall therefore, while I would not personally rate '77 quite as highly as '70, I certainly don't percieve it as a weak year, or one with lots of issues. I decided to quantify my perception.
From my tasting notes, I find the following percentages given to each rating across all wines tasted from these years, as follows:
Code: Select all
YEAR Ex Ex/VG VG VG/G G G/Ok Ok Ok/Poor Poor Faulty
1970 29 19 17 13 12 5 2 0 2 2
1977 20 13 21 7 9 13 5 3 4 5
1970 wins for me as expected, but while '77 shows a good percentage at the high end, there are admittedly a few more at the bottom of the range than I would have expected.
So, how do other people view 1977? As a generally good year, as a problem year, both or neither?