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On Tuesday 19th December 2017, at The Boot & Flogger, as arranged by Charles, we tasted eighteen 1977s. It was splendid.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1977 Gould Campbell;
• 1977 Smith Woodhouse;
• 1977 Quarles Harris;
• 1977 Graham;
• 1977 Dow;
• 1977 Warre;
• 1977 Cockburn;
• 1977 Factory House Blend;
• 1977 Morgan;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1977 Taylor;
• 1977 Croft;
• 1977 Sandeman;
• 1977 Offley;
• 1977 Ferreira;
• 1977 Niepoort;
• 1977 Kopke;
• 1977 Delaforce;
• Placemats (with embarrassing typo);
• Planning and arrangements.

Thanks to Charles for arranging the evening. It was a great opportunity to taste a good range of wines from the vintage and to form an overall impression. Generally this is a great vintage, but is badly marred by cork taint. Lots of the ports are slightly hollow on entry but compensate for this by developing nicely on the mid-palate. Many are still showing tannins and (nearly) all are given a lovely freshness from the acidity. Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse continue to stand out as oddities in the vintage, dark and bold yet without the elegance that most 1977 ports show. The Warre at this tasting was the best I have ever encountered — but was a very pale colour compared to most of its peers.

In summary, this is a vintage which produced some fantastic ports but one with which the buyer has to be aware of the risk of cork taint. The best of the wines are superb.

Many thanks Charles for organising this session. I felt the ports on the night fell into one of five categories:

Young & straightfoward: GC, SW, QH

Young, powerful and superb: F, T

Elegant & refined (High Quality): Ni, G, W, O, Ck, S

Elegant & refined (OK Quality): Mg, FH, Df

Corked or otherwise flawed: Fr, Cr, D, K

TNs belated posted.