1963 Offley

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14879
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

1963 Offley

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

The bottle with the battered label
The bottle with the battered label
1963 Offley bottle s.JPG (25.46 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

Bottled by Harvey’s of Bristol; acquired from Seckfords in September 2006. Opened with tongs in order to be able to easily extract the undamaged cork.

Capsule and cork showing bottler
Capsule and cork showing bottler
1963 Offley corks.JPG (43.15 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

A gorgeous, mature brick-red colour, about 50% opaque. Wonderful nose of sweet candied cherries, tobacco and mace. Complex, elegant and incredibly appetising.

Such a lovely colour
Such a lovely colour
1963 Offley s.JPG (30.79 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

On the palate this is so elegant, richly flavoured with the preserved cherry and mace yet with a delightful dryness to the palate which just highlights the beauty of the fruit. There are so many layers of flavour to the wine that it seems such a shame to swallow it, but the complexity and delicacy of the wine just forces you to swallow.

If only all capsules were like this
If only all capsules were like this
1963 Offley capsule 2s.JPG (42.7 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

And then, OMG, the flavours explode. The dryness of liquorice root, the gentle heat of aniseed balls, maraschino cherry and this superb tobacco dryness to the finish. A finish which I gave up timing after 3 minutes.

More detail of the label damage
More detail of the label damage
1963 Offley labels.JPG (39.33 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

This is truly a superb bottle of Port and one which has vastly exceeded my expectations and is one of the best bottles of 1963 Vintage Port I have ever opened. 97/100. Decanted 90 minutes. Drunk 28-Nov-2021.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
MigSU
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
Posts: 634
Joined: 13:22 Wed 17 Feb 2021
Location: Douro Valley

Re: 1963 Offley

Post by MigSU »

What a lovely capsule.
I can't comment on the wine as I've not had the pleasure of sampling it, but it does sound fantastic.
PhilW
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
Posts: 3503
Joined: 14:22 Wed 15 Dec 2010
Location: Near Cambridge, UK

Re: 1963 Offley

Post by PhilW »

Alex Bridgeman wrote: 23:50 Wed 01 Dec 2021This ... is one of the best bottles of 1963 Vintage Port I have ever opened.
The port-lover in me thinks "that sounds excellent, what a great bottle"; the geek/pedant in me wants to know what percentage of bottles of 1963 vintage port that you have tasted have been scored >=97 (and if only a few, then which) :)
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nac
Fonseca 1980
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Re: 1963 Offley

Post by nac »

I have a bottle of the OBV62 and a couple of the OBV63 that have consistent, but far less interesting, capsules (see below).

OBV62&63snip.JPG
OBV62&63snip.JPG (91.52 KiB) Viewed 997 times

The labels on the 63s appear identical to your bottle and make no mention of a bottler.

Anyone else had bottles with these capsules and knows the bottler? Or maybe Oporto bottled?
PhilW
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
Posts: 3503
Joined: 14:22 Wed 15 Dec 2010
Location: Near Cambridge, UK

Re: 1963 Offley

Post by PhilW »

Neil - your capsules are consistent with all images I have of Oporto-bottled OBV62/63 shipped by Offley Forester Ltd.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 1963 Offley

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

PhilW wrote: 10:51 Thu 02 Dec 2021
Alex Bridgeman wrote: 23:50 Wed 01 Dec 2021This ... is one of the best bottles of 1963 Vintage Port I have ever opened.
The port-lover in me thinks "that sounds excellent, what a great bottle"; the geek/pedant in me wants to know what percentage of bottles of 1963 vintage port that you have tasted have been scored >=97 (and if only a few, then which) :)
It's nearly time to share pointless statistics so I can do this as a warm up.

I have tasting notes on 352 different bottles of 1963 Port, of which 331 are vintage (or single quinta vintage port).

15 of the 331 I scored at 80 or less.
49 of the 331 I scored at 81-85.
112 of the 331 I scored at 86-90.
125 of the 331 I scored at 91-95.
9 of the 331 I scored 96.
3 of the 331 I scored 97.
3 of the 331 I scored 98 (all were Noval Nacional).
1 of the 331 I scored 99 (it was also Noval Nacional).
1 of the 331 I scored 100 (no prizes for guessing what it was).
(And for anyone doing the maths, there were 12 bottles which were not scored because they were damaged.)

The three wines awarded 97 points were Fonseca 1963, the Harvey's bottled Offley 1963 and a Berry Brothers' bottled Warre 1963.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Will W.
Taylor’s LBV
Posts: 183
Joined: 14:33 Thu 11 Aug 2016

Re: 1963 Offley

Post by Will W. »

What a truly wonderful tasting note Alex; it gets to the heart of both the bottle and your wider enthusiasm.
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