Post
by PhilW » 10:44 Thu 12 Apr 2018
This was a very interesting and enjoyable evening, with a significant spread of port quality.
There were three faulty bottles: Fonseca, Niepoort and Offley; the Offley was undrinkable, the Fonseca was tolerable but not good, and the Niepoort looked and tasted wrong, though it had some interesting complexity hidden away underneath the faulty taste. Aside from the faulty bottles the others spanned the range of ratings from vg+ to g-, with Taylor, Croft and Constantino being my top three for the night.
My impression is that the '63s are not showing a "second wind" at this time, with no evidence of any pick-up. The picture for me is that some of the '63s are ageing gracefully with only a slow decline beyond their prime, while others have declined more much more rapidly. By comparison, the '66s currently seem to be holding up much better, though clearly a lot of this will be heavily storage dependent, as always.
Thanks to Julian for organising (especially given the complexities with last minute changes from attendees dropping out, Axel sadly being unable to join us due to the flight cancellations etc), to all who helped with decanting and setup, and to all for their bottles and good company.