Community Tasting Note

Echinosum Likes this wine:

Saturday, August 15, 2020 - My first bottle of a half dozen. I consider this very good to drink already, but clearly has the structure to last much longer. Whether it will improve, I have not sufficient knowledge to judge. It has the concentration that you can be happy with a small serving, and it lasted me over a fortnight, kept in the fridge, as is my habit, without evident deterioration.

This has a concentration, complexity and completeness, fineness of tannins, and attractive fruit, that puts it well above the Taylors Vargellas 2002, and Quinta do Noval LBV unfiltered 2011, that are the only bottles of port I have drunk in the last several years. Since those are consistently scored around 90 and 91 respectively, so I think this must be worth at least 93. But I don't really have sufficient points of comparison.

I had a small taste of Vesuvio 1997 when visiting the Symingtons' show quinta at Bomfim in Pinhao about 3 years ago, and that one was much tougher than this. The concentration was seriously impressive, but the fruit was still very dark, tar-like even. I felt it was going to need quite some time to resolve. Rather like some great Pauillac, I felt it was one of those wines you might admire, but are not really much fun. So I am much happier with this 2003 being so much more forward and fun.

The presentation of this 6-bottle case is the most beautiful and tasteful I have ever seen. I don't think it is some special presentation package, I think it just comes like this. It came in a polished oak box, with a hinged lid and brass clip. The box included a glazed ceramic cellar bin label and a coffee-table book about the history of the quinta (like Vargellas, it has its own railway station.) Each bottle was wrapped in tissue. These bonus items have given some small pleasure even to those who don't drink.

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