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Unfiltered LBV. I was worried this would be too mature but still darkly coloured and opaque; fading a little to purple-red. Intense concentration on the nose: some cherries perhaps with distant sugar and some flowers, too. In the mouth, not terribly expressive on first tasting. Still quite a lot of acidity and some tannins. It opens up to a more expressive mid-palate which has cherries and black pepper (which I think might be quite distinctive of Smith Woodhouse). The aftertaste is quite long with nicely rounded cherries. This probably needs another 5-10 years to reach proper maturity.

Date: 9th July 2020

Rated*: P+

http://www.jacob-head.com/port/records/ ... e_1995_LBV

[* A Note on Ratings

My rating system attempts to answer the question “is this a good Port?” one of three ways: No; Possibly; or Certainly. Ports generally are rated against others of their category. Therefore, a Ruby Port which I rate as C for Certainly good, might not be as good as a Vintage Port which receives the same rating. I sometimes modify my rating with a plus or minus indicating that the Port is better or worse than might be expected for this category.]

I've been drinking this through the Coravin so only pulled the cork tonight.

Under the SW-branded foil was a selo and then a second plastic "foil" which was stamped on the top "LBV / 1995 / 1999". The cork similarly read "L.B.V. / 1995 / Bottled 1999".

Presumably when this was bottled they didn't really have an idea as to under which shipper's name it would be sold (and perhaps they were hoping to flog it as a BOB to a supermarket or similar?) with it only becoming a Smith Woodhouse at a later date.