Dutch 'Prikbord' offline: 25 ports from 2000 and some others

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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Dutch 'Prikbord' offline: 25 ports from 2000 and some others

Post by RonnieRoots »

These are notes from January 2006:

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Yesterday, I was happy to attend an offline of members of 'Wijnprikbord', the largest and most active wine forum in the Netherlands. 16 people attended this tasting, 25 VP's 2000, three VP's 2003, one 1994 and one 1985. I owe a big thank you to Mathieu and Tineke for hosting this event in a fabulous way. Also many thanks for the great cheeses, lovely beef and very tasty chocolate cake!

Mathieu really outdid himself in organizing this event. He managed to persuade the ICEP to sponsor the event with the official port glasses (that all the attendees could take home afterwards), and several producers generously supplied bottles of VP2000, and in some cases 2003.

All ports were tasted blind.


1. Martinez (kindly supplied by the producer)
Smells like sour sweets and cooked vegetables. Odd. Also some spices (sage, cloves). This is incredibly thin on the palate, and extremely acidic, combined with artificial sweetness. Not recommended. 78/79

2. Burmester
Fairly hot on the nose, but also some nice cherries. Somewhat closed, but showing some nice flavours of cherries and chocolate. Medium bodied, not really complex. Nice enough. 86

3. Churchill’s
Corked. :x

4. Gould Campbell (kindly supplied by the producer)
Lovely sweet and floral aromas and flavours of cherries, currant and other red fruit. Medium bodied, good tannin structure. Nice, solid port, drinks very well now. 91

5. Quarles Harris (kindly supplied by the producer)
Not giving much on the nose and palate; very much closed. It does show a very good structure and lots of tannins, also some flavours of sweet dark fruit. Great potential 92+

6. Quinta do Portal (kindly supplied by the producer/importer)
Also closed, but not as much as no. 5. Flavours of blackcurrant, gooseberry, chilli pepper and a good freshness. Tannins are solid, but not massive. 91+

7. Quinta do Noval Silval
Odd chemical nose (burnt rubber), very alcoholic. Not much fruit on the palate, but showing some bitter tobacco. Rather thin, and turning extremely hot towards the finish. It does have a solid structure though. In an odd phase? 83

8. Dalva
Spicy nose with a bubblegum sweetness. Extremely sweet, and lacking completely in structure. Not of VP quality. 77

9. Cockburn’s (kindly supplied by the producer)
The nose is very open and full of aromas; jammy fruit, caramel, but also good freshness. Full and fruity, packed with dark cherries, bitter chocolate, black pepper and herbs. Shows lots of character. 92

10. Croft
Already much more evolved in colour than most of the others. No fruit on the nose, only ‘old’ aromas: toffee, fudge, nuts. Watery and light on the palate, showing some fruit here. Not unpleasant, but nothing special. 84

11. Fonseca
Corked! A pity, because it had a massive structure. :x :x

12. Kopke
Closed and alcoholic nose. Later showing more frruit and a pleasant freshness. Light to medium bodied port, with red fruit and some pepper. Good flavours, but fairly one dimensional. 87

13. Quinta do Crasto
Not showing much on the nose except for some redcurrant and alcohol. Medium bodied, with redcurrant, strawberries and a light bitterness. Some bay leave on the medium length finish. Nice port. 88

14. Poças
This is one closed and tight port. All I can taste are tannins. I think it’ll be very good in the future, but impossible to judge now. Not rated, but showing great potential and certainly a big surprise.

15. Quinta de Roriz (kindly supplied by the producer)
This smells of cooked vegetables, and only that. The flavours are all very correct, with sweet red fruit, liquorice, bay leave, a touch of chocolateand some spicy chilli pepper, but somehow it fails to excite. Perhaps because it is lacking in freshness, 85

16. Ramos Pinto
Sweets an unripe fruit on the nose. An artificial sweetness on the palate, and lacking in both structure and concentration. The nice and spiciy finish saves the port, but only just. 80

17. Smith Woodhouse
Not giving much on the nose, but much more expressive on the palate. Fresh and full of cherries, although also rather hot. Straightforward, but good port. 87

18. Vista Allegre
Cherries, cherries and cherries on the nose, later accompanied by strawberries and redcurrant. This is the same on the palate, but a touch of fresh apple flavours makes it interesting. Good structure and concentration. 88

19. Graham
Very rustic nose, menure and epoisse. Sweet styled port, fat and well structured. Very solid tannins. I guessed this to be Graham and was right. 90

20. Quinta do Noval
Why does this smell like a rotting sewer? Odd. It does have the structure, as well as the tannins, but the flavours are overripe and rot. An off bottle? 78

21. Quinta do Vesuvio
Very much closed nose. All I can get out of it is some gunpowder. On the palate is is overwhelmingly green and bitter and shows very coarse tannins. But also good fruit and an impressive structure. Needs a lot of time, too difficult to score at the moment.

22. Niepoort
Doesn’t give much on the nose. Flavours of creamy chocolate, coffee, strawberries and other sweet red fruits. Medium to full bodied. Good, but I doubt if it makes it on the very long term. 89

23. Taylor’s
Smoky, tarry nose. Very compact, yet extremely powerful port. This has so much, but shows so little at the moment. Powerful, robust, a very big boy. 93+

24. Warre’s (kindly supplied by the producer)
Not as powerful as no. 23, but certainly very good. Open, sweet fruit and well integrated tannins. 91+

25. Dow’s
A very nice nose with liquorice, bay leave and fresh fruit. Not alcoholic at all. This is full and round, with velvetty fruit, lots of power and tannins, but well masked by its sweetness and fruit. I was surprised to learn this was Dow, because it is rather sweet. 92


Other ports:

A. Taylor’s LBV 2000
The opener of the afternoon. I’m never much a fan of Taylor LBV’s, but this was pretty good. Good flavours of cherry and chocolate. Medium bodied and not extremely complex, but nice alltogether. 84

B. Warre’s 1994 VP
Still very fruity on the nose, although a touch of leather is giving away some age. Lovely flavours, this doesn’t win on concentration, but on subtlety and distinctness. Very nice. 92

C. Fonseca 1985 VP
Refined glass of port, already many older notes (tobacco, leather) but still good fruit and very lively. Full, spicy and interesting. Silky soft, long finish. Did seem older than the ‘85’s I previously tasted. 94

D. Martinez 2003 VP (kindly supplied by the producer)
VA is predominant on the nose and palate. I didn’t like it.

E. Dalva 2003 VP (kindly supplied by the producer)
Not overly concentrated, and not very complex. But nice flavours of red fruit. An average VP.

F. Quinta do Noval 2003 VP (kindly supplied by the producer)
No tasting notes, but a lovely young VP. Good concentration, dark flavours and a nice match with chocolate cake.
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