March 17, 2024 - Women Who Wine & Their Arm Candy (Estelle, St. Paul, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Small pour. Blackberry liqueur, fig, golden raisin, dark chocolate, wood.
September 30, 2021 - 2021 FTLOP Harvest Tour; 9/19/2021-10/2/2021 (Portgugal): Chocolate and herbal notes on the nose. Intense boysenberry and a touch of cranberry on the palate. Very nice acidity and balance. A faint touch of mint on the finish.
April 9, 2021 - Medium garnet. Intense nose of prune jam, raisins, black chocolate, leather, cinnamon. Wine is dense with taste of raisins, prunes, chocolate. Medium tanins and acidity. Long.
April 7, 2021 - Prune jam, milk chocolate, rum and raisin on the nose. Dense, sweet spicy fig and caramel palate. Long, clove and slightly smoked finish. This is obviously good port, but no matter how much I try I just can't get myself to fall for it. It's too sweet and characterless for me (at this stage). I'm going to leave all of my further bottles of Vesuvio for a few years in the hope that age will coax out some personality.
February 25, 2021 - Very similar experience to my last bottle, but didn't get any of the raisin I noted before. A beautifully balanced port. 93+
October 17, 2020 - Quinta do Vesuvio Tasting (Sammamish, Washington): Initial notes of pine needles, giving way to some chocolate and dark fruit. The palate is well-rounded and well-integrated, showcasing black currant, raspberry, and some strawberry. Very long, balanced finish. Decanted 6 hours.
January 6, 2020 - Dark fruits, raisins and spice. Less sweet than other ports I've had (a good thing). In a great place now.
September 25, 2019 - Dark ruby. Nose of blackcurrants and dried fruits. Full bodied, intense, and balanced with some bitternes of oak on aftertaste.
March 21, 2019 - Took about 3 hours on night 1 to hit its stride and still going strong into night 2 (didn't make it to night 3). Intense nose of stewed figs, sticky date pudding.
Thick, chewy texture of licorice, violets, salted plums on the mouth. Dark, dark, dark but still young. Lots of height with a sophisticated sweetness.
Classy finish of roasted lacquer and cedar.
Excellent balance and complexity. It was interesting to open it this early - hopefully will try an older version sometime.
December 25, 2017 - Dried fruits, spices and a hint of heat on the nose. Sweet palate with still a lot of black fruits, secondary notes and enough acidity to keep the wine balanced. A noble wine which offers much pleasure.