Vintage Port

Smith Woodhouse
1977 Vintage Port
$99
Shane’s Notes

Most of my Christmas bonus went into the wedding the fund, but I couldn’t resist spending a $100 on a vintage port. James Suckling gave this port 99 points and said it was a must buy so we decided to try it.*

This is the oldest wine we have drunk together. We were relieved to pop the cork and find the wine in good shape. The aroma was floral and very sweet. The wine was brownish red as one would expect from an aged port. We took a sip and backed off – we let it sit for about a half an hour before approaching it again. The dominant flavor is maple syrup with subsidiary flavors of anise and cherry cough drop with some dark chocolate on the finish. There was nice minerality underneath the palate.

This port seemed fully developed: the palate was complex and the tannins were very smooth. In fact, it’s the first port we have drunk without the overpowering tannins. However, we both would have preferred a heavier fruit flavor on the palate. In our opinion, ports should be fruit bombs. We admired the structure of this one but were a bit disappointed with our $100 purchase.

Postscript:

After reading some more reviews of this one on www.thevintageportsite.com, I’m left wondering if the bottle was slightly ruined.* We certainly did not detect the heavy fruit flavors everyone is raving about. The palate tasted a little flat to us.

*www.thevintageportsite.com