Vintage Port Dinner in Lisbon

At a get-together in Lisbon with fellow Port enthusiasts we sampled and drank the following rather diverse selection of Port wines. My thanks are due to Alex Bridgeman of the Port Forum and Big Fortified tasting and to Bill Willey for sharing their remarkable wines with me.

Cockburn 1955 ***/****

UK bottling: lovely mid-deep colour, still pinkish on the rim; gentle, fragrant but rather dusty and hot on the nose and seemingly fading in the glass; shows better on the palate with firm a spicy-spirity character, rather lean mid-palate but finishes well with medicinal-cherry fruit. Balanced but drying out. 16.5

Krohn 1961 ****

One of very few 1961s to be declared: pale-to-mid brick red, tawny rim; rich, dark milk chocolate concentration with a hint of spirit and a touch of rusticity; fresh, firm and spicy on the palate with bitter-sweet berry fruit supported by good, grippy tannins which linger on to the finish. Holding up really well. 18.

Quinta do Junco 1935 ***

Junco in the Pinhão valley belonged to Borges & Irmão until it was sold to Taylor’s in 1998. No label on the bottle but a lead tag to identify the wine: pale, rather muddy tawny hue; lifted and quite attractive initially, café au lait with a touch of wood smoke emerging but rather flat and oxidised after a few minutes in the glass; light, creamy milk-chocolate fruit on the palate with dusty tannins, retaining lovely acidity but now fragile. Difficult to award a mark but, on balance: 15

José Duarte de Oliveira, Quinta do Sibío 1902 ****

The label helpfully tells us that Sibío is on the ‘Costa do Castedo’, which is the upper slopes of the Ronção valley just upstream from Pinhão. The quinta was split in two with the greater part sold to Real Companhia Velha in 1934. This wine was bottled in August 1906 making it something akin to an LBV: lovely bright, pale amber-tawny in hue; rather flat on the nose with a delicate singed character and a touch of butterscotch emerging; showing rather better on the on the palate retaining some sweetness and tannin, though seemingly quite dry in style, totally redeemed by an exquisite, haunting finish, redolent of Elvas Plum. Very difficult to award a mark to a wine like this but ultimately (thanks to that finish) it delivered much pleasure: 17

Petre’s 1963 Colheita **/***

Petre was a name used by Niepoort until as recently as the 1990s. This wine was probably bottled in the late 1970s. Mid-pale tawny hue with a very odd nose, woody, musty with a pronounced rancio character; like so many of these wines this is better on the palate, dried fruit, still retaining tannin but disjointed and rather clumsy without much finesse overall and a rather casky finish. 14.5

Niepoort 1912 Colheita (bottled 1981) ****/*****

Retaining a deep red-mahogany colour; distinctly high-toned on the nose with lovely rich, lifted fruit, boiled sweets, quite intense; similarly sweet and luscious on the palate, verging on unctuous with rich, raisiny fruit, dried figs mid-palate leading to syrup of figs on the finish but still very fresh so it just stops short of cloying. Very, very impressive. 18.5

S. Leorando ‘Sessenta (60)’ ****/*****

A blend of two wines from 1948 and 1972, bottled in 2017 by Miguel Braga of Quinta do Mourão, called ‘60’ because it approximates to a 60-year-old tawny, a category which has never existed. Today it would be a VVOP! This large Baixo Corgo estate has recently been sold to Ribatejo-based Falua. Mid-deep brick red-tawny; lifted, rich, heady butterscotch aromas with beautiful crystalised fruit character both on the nose and on the palate, seamless leading to a lovely lithe finish. A great way to round off an evening of Port drinking! 18.5