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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.


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


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.


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.


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.

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.

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)

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


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?

Neil - your capsules are consistent with all images I have of Oporto-bottled OBV62/63 shipped by Offley Forester Ltd.

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.

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