Pointless Statistics

[Alex Bridgeman]

Some pointless tasting statistics from my 2023 notes.

In 2023 I tasted (or drank) from 615 different containers of Port or pretend-Port. Some containers were small (5cl) and some were larger — the largest this year was a 600cl imperial of Taylor 1977 drunk at dinner at the Tower of London in June. Most were between these extremes. It's the second largest number of tasting notes I've written in a year, behind last year's 768.

The oldest wine I tasted in 2023 was an 1834 from Krohn (twice!). In total there were 11 wines from the 19th century included in my tasting notes.

The average age of the vintage dated wines tasted was 46 years. By type of Port this broke down to be:
Colheita - 45
Crusted - 19
Garrafeira - 42
LBV - 13
VP/SQVP - 48
White Colheita - 34

- 413 (67%) of the Ports were Ruby (18 ruby or ruby reserve, 23 LBV, 4 crusted, 45 SQVP, 323 VP).
- 163 (27%) of the Ports were Tawny (6 tawny or tawny reserve, 24 10YO, 22 20YO, 5 30YO, 18 40YO, 2 50YO, 2 +80YO, 84 colheita).
- 34 (6%) of the Ports were White (2 white or white reserve, 9 10YO, 1 20YO, 6 30YO, 3 40YO, 4 50YO, 2 +80YO, 7 colheita)
- 3 of the Ports were Garrafeira
- 1 of the Ports was Pink
- 1 of the Ports was not strictly Port (1 Douro Moscatel)

The best wine I tasted was a bottle of Taylor's 1896 Colheita, which I gave 100 points. There were 8 wines I tasted in 2023 which I gave 99 points - there was some amazing drinking last year! I had a couple of poor bottles of Croft (1982 and 1966) last year which didn't seem to be flawed, just not good wines.

107 of the 615 Ports were new to me and were wines I've not tasted before. Of this 107, 50 were Vintage Ports I've not tasted before. The most welcome and satisfying of these was Smith Woodhouse 1963 - a wine I have been looking to taste for nearly 20 years! Thank you to everyone who made it happen.

[winesecretary]

That 1896 Colheita was a miraculous drink.