CLWS, Young-ish SQs v 1970, 4th Dec 2019

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nac
Fonseca 1980
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CLWS, Young-ish SQs v 1970, 4th Dec 2019

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Central London Wine Society
Modern Single Quinta Ports v. 1970 Vintage Port
Civil Service Club, Wednesday 4th December 2019
Presented by Paul Mapplebeck

All bottles were double decanted around 5hrs before the tasting.
Presented in pairs as only had two glasses, making wider comparisons tricky.

CLWS uses a 1-7 scoring systems and then takes a average score (from the 23 attendees) for each wine.

NV Graham's Crusted - bottled 2012
Deep ruby colour, with lots of rich black fruit on the nose. Nice soft tannin, but alcohol too dominant and much drier than expected. Not particularly liked.
My score 3/7 (4.4 group score)

1998 Fonseca Guimaraens
Quite pale with some development on the nose. Soft tannin, alcohol again a bit too forward and drier than hoped for. Ready to drink now and possibly showing signs of going downhill. I suspect it hadn't been stored sympathetically.
4/7 (4.9)

2001 Graham's Malvedos
Shown alongside the Fonseca - much deeper, ruby colour. Muted nose, well balanced/integrated, medium tannin and plenty of fruit. Not quite ready?
4/7 (4.7)

2002 Taylor's Vargellas
Apparently had the most sediment of all the wines shown.
Still quite deep with a slightly medicinal nose. Soft tannins, very well balanced, lots of rich fruit. Less ready to drink than the Cavadinha (with which it was poured).
5/7 (5.1)

2002 Warre's Cavadinha
Pretty much identical colour to the Vargellas, but more maturity and fruit on the nose. Very sweet, balanced and long. Ready to drink but no rush.
5/7 (5.7)

1970 Warre - bottled by The Yorkshire Fine Wine Co
Clean, very pale rim, medium core. Lots of development on the nose, but still some signs of fruit. Excellent sweetness, balance, complexity. Liked this a lot.
7/7 (6.4 - wine of the night)

1970 Taylor - bottled by Saccone & Speed
Shown with the W70 - marginally deeper colour but much less mature nose. Not as sweet with more tannin. Alcohol possibly slightly too forward, but very very nice otherwise.
6/7 (5.9)

1970 Graham - probably Oporto bottled
Pale rim/core, brown tinged. Rather odd meaty, burnt nose. Better in the mouth, but alcohol dominated. Past it? Again, suspect storage might be an issue.
5/7 (5.9)

1970 Fonseca - label badly damaged and bottler information unclear, could make out ?T JAM? ASLETT S?
Shown alongside the G70. Pale, but without the browning of the G70. Clean muted nose. Pretty good but a bit out of balance with the alcohol too evident. Good but a bit disappointing given the reputation of F70.
5/7 (6.3)

Any clues on the bottler?
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