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1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 17:32 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
The Symington's 'second XI' are noticeable by their absence for the '75 vintage. Although declared, I have never recorded an auction lot for Smith Woodhouse, Gould Campbell or Quarles Harris, except for this one lone bottle of QH that I secured at a local Christmas auction last year.

Being a bottle from the Sym's least favoured house, from the least favoured declared vintage of recent years, and of no provenance; I decided this was one to drink sooner rather than later.

Decanted a few minutes ago - for the vintage, a surprisingly good ruby colour. Decanted very cleanly.

First sip - no bottle stink, a light pleasant nose. On the palate, a light but very pleasant wine, with a good finish and absolutely no fire.

So far, very much better than expected!

More anon..

Tom

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 19:50 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by RonnieRoots
Thanks for the note Tom. I'm always interested to see how the '75's are doing. Last year I found a Gould Campbell 1975. Note here.

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 21:46 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
D + 5 hours

This is a lovely, perfectly mature wine, with a rather cheeky, fruity, character. After a year that has so far given me a little more than my fair share of disappointments, I am now enjoying my second unexpected delight in less than ten days.

The nose is still modest, (but nothing could top that Dow '60) but on the eye the wine is perfection, and on the palate it is a delight.

On the de-merit front, it is a little bit weak, but that is really splitting hairs. This easily tops my last '75 (Warre) and a mile ahead of the '75 Dow. I must re-visit the Graham '75 before too long, but this wine would certainly be a match, and possibly more than a match, for the G75, which I have previously ranked as the best of the bunch.

Will re-visit and score tomorrow

Tom

PS Ronnie - I clocked your note with interest. There are a few hits for GC75 if you trawl wine-searcher, but nothing at all (even on worldwide setting) for SW or QH - very odd....

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 21:57 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by DRT
I wonder if the Symingtons are sitting on a stash of these for which they may think there is no market? It may be worth an email and a modest shared purchase by a few TPFers, at least those who are prepared to believe that a 1975 VP can be enjoyable?

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 22:26 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
Good point Derek, a very casual enquiry might be worthwhile... :D

Tom

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 22:30 Mon 15 Sep 2008
by jdaw1
Which begs a broader question: they and others might have many stashes of many things. At a reasonable price, we would surely take one or several cases of each.

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 01:01 Thu 18 Sep 2008
by DRT
A glass from the same bottle given to me by Tom this evening when I met him on my way to my hotel at Stansted airport:

Darker than I would have expected. Very brown, but that might be the light in this room. A nice weight and quite smooth. Chocolate and oranges, no red fruit flavours coming to me. Fully mature but still hanging together. A little heat at first but this fades away quickly. The finish is quite long and mouthwatering.

This is no stunner but I agree it would make an excellent quaffer at the right price.

Thanks Tom :wink:

Derek

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 07:35 Thu 18 Sep 2008
by benread
DRT wrote:A glass from the same bottle given to me by Tom this evening when I met him on my way to my hotel at Stansted airport:

Darker than I would have expected. Very brown, but that might be the light in this room. A nice weight and quite smooth. Chocolate and oranges, no red fruit flavours coming to me. Fully mature but still hanging together. A little heat at first but this fades away quickly. The finish is quite long and mouthwatering.

This is no stunner but I agree it would make an excellent quaffer at the right price.

Thanks Tom :wink:

Derek
Will you make your flight this time?!

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 10:15 Thu 18 Sep 2008
by DRT
Yes. I decided that an early morning flight with Mr A would be a disaster waiting to happen so we are booked on the 18:30. That said, we are meeting at the airport at 17:00 so will have to set a reminder on the phone to get out of the bar and head for the gate by 18:25 at the latest :twisted: :lol:

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 14:43 Thu 18 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
Derek's sample may have been getting a little tired by the time he got to sample it; it was showing it's best after about 24 hours.

To score:

For immediate gratification this just about makes the top quartile, so an 8

Where's it going? I reckon this is on it's plateau, but will probably be showing a little decline in another decade.

So score 8-7

Tom

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 13:15 Fri 19 Sep 2008
by mosesbotbol
Do you really think there is a stash of this somewhere?

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris vintage port

Posted: 01:05 Sun 14 May 2017
by jdaw1
DRT wrote: 21:57 Mon 15 Sep 2008I wonder if the Symingtons are sitting on a stash of these for which they may think there is no market? It may be worth an email and a modest shared purchase by a few TPFers, at least those who are prepared to believe that a 1975 VP can be enjoyable?
What happened? Was an enquiry made?

Re: 1975 Quarles Harris

Posted: 01:22 Sun 14 May 2017
by DRT
Not that I recall.