NV Churchill Club Tawny
Posted: 00:50 Fri 27 Aug 2021
From a sample kindly sent to me by Justin; tasted blind.
NV Churchill Club Tawny
bottled 2021
Color: medium dark tawny with significant red notes, very clear.
Nose: rather faint, possibly due to temp (pulled from fridge 30 min ahead of tasting). Nose has more ruby notes than exhibited in the color. Lik-a-Stik. Light strawberry with some faint caramelized notes. Faint whiff of Biscoff cookies.
Palate: tastes like a young colheita or possibly a 10YO blend, though it does seem older than 10. I.e. still showing a significant amount of ruby, while definitely headed toward tawny, but not exhibiting enough age to be a 20YO. Smooth, then decent acidity and some faint tannins. Sugars are nicely balanced with the acidity putting it in the off-dry to medium range. (Not medium sweet.) The most prominent fruit seems to be cranberry, with some less-than-ripe raspberry backing it up. There’s also a background note of caramelizing fruits, but not yet caramel.
Finish: pleasant, fairly short, some bitterness from latent cranberry flavor.
Score: 91 points. This is a nice Port, but for my taste it is sitting in that strange realm between ruby and tawny that I generally avoid. Another 10 (or 20) years in wood, please!
NV Churchill Club Tawny
bottled 2021
Color: medium dark tawny with significant red notes, very clear.
Nose: rather faint, possibly due to temp (pulled from fridge 30 min ahead of tasting). Nose has more ruby notes than exhibited in the color. Lik-a-Stik. Light strawberry with some faint caramelized notes. Faint whiff of Biscoff cookies.
Palate: tastes like a young colheita or possibly a 10YO blend, though it does seem older than 10. I.e. still showing a significant amount of ruby, while definitely headed toward tawny, but not exhibiting enough age to be a 20YO. Smooth, then decent acidity and some faint tannins. Sugars are nicely balanced with the acidity putting it in the off-dry to medium range. (Not medium sweet.) The most prominent fruit seems to be cranberry, with some less-than-ripe raspberry backing it up. There’s also a background note of caramelizing fruits, but not yet caramel.
Finish: pleasant, fairly short, some bitterness from latent cranberry flavor.
Score: 91 points. This is a nice Port, but for my taste it is sitting in that strange realm between ruby and tawny that I generally avoid. Another 10 (or 20) years in wood, please!