1990 Quinta do Vesuvio

[Alex Bridgeman]

Bottle number 21384. The last from a case of six. Opened and decanted an hour ago. A dusky rose red, quite lightly pigmented at about 50% opacity. Cherry cola on the nose, maybe that's being unfair - it's red cherries, smelling quite sweet with a cola root element to it but fresh and elegant rather than overwhelmingly sugary. It is more like cherry cola on the palate! Very sweet fruit without a lot of complexity; a little bitterness does give a counterpoint to the sweetness but the wine lacks the acidity needed to really shine. The aftertaste has some attractive, warming aniseed and a good length finish. It's not a bad wine, but it's not very complex. Would I get out of my seat to refill my glass? Maybe, or maybe I'd wait to see if someone else would make the effort and refill my glass for me. Luckily the decanter is within reach of my left hand. 86/100.

[mcoulson]

Well there are a lot worse things you could do on a Saturday night than deal with a decanter of V90 within close proximity.

[Alex Bridgeman]

The decanter didn’t get finished on Saturday night or on Sunday night. It was probably drinking better on Sunday than Saturday having found a better balance, the sweetness being better matched by the acidity. She who has a better palate than mine (SWHABPTM) took a sip and exclaimed “Ooh that’s liquoricy!” And she wasn’t wrong.

I’m interested to see how the wine tastes tonight, but I suspect that it’s going to end up being a very unusual (in this house) 5 night bottle of VP.