Page 1 of 1

1977 Quarles Harris Vintage Port

Posted: 23:24 Fri 22 Jun 2007
by DRT
Feb 2006

First time I have had this.

Opened at 16:00 - not much on the nose but what there is is fruity with little alchohol. Colour is a nice dark red with a slightly brown rim. First taste (@ 2 minutes 88) ) is fruity but seems closed and (hopefully) hiding something for later. Small amount of heat in a very long but dry finish.

Managed to leave this in the decanter without touching it for 6 hours - a new Personal Best 88) Cherry fruit had now come out and I could feel my mouth watering with every sip. Still not much on the nose. Light mouth-feel but very smooth. Finish was quite long but hot at the end.

After another 2 hours (8 from decanting) this turned very spirity and almost bitter. Fruit had all but gone and it was no longer a pleasent drink.


Day 2
I had kept half of this bottle in a 375ml bottle from decanting and stored it in the fridge for 24 hours. I then lifted it out of the fridge and stood it for 8 hours with the cork in to come back up to room temperature. Another post will follow on this topic.

On opening this was almost identical to my very first taste on decanting the bottle. I had a glass every half an hour for the next 2 hours. During this time the fruit became more and more intense with each glass. The mouth-feel also changed over this time going from quite viscous to fairly light.


Overall I enjoyed this bottle, and my experiment with the 375ml in the fridge. I have 1 bottle of this left and next time I think I will decant for 1 hour and drink over the next 2 hours to make sure I get it at it's best 88)

----------------

I really wish I had read this again before opening the bottle I had with Alan recently - and, yes, I should have listened to Andy V when he told me to five it no more than 3 hours in the decanter :?