Well, it's starting to chill down here in the UK, so what better than a tasting of a few Ports, thus time from the house of Warre's.
NV Warre's Warrior - Special Reserve
Very very sweet, one dimensional, simple - stewed plums and spirit. Not particularly special and not worth £9.
1992 Warre's Traditional Late Bottled Vintage
A significant step up. Nice clean nose of macerated cherries and plum together with exotic spices. Sweet, but balanced with a nice cleansing finish. Value wine of the night at £15. However, the 1997 Quinta do Noval is better at £11 for mine.
1984 Warre's Traditional Late Bottled Vintage
An aged version of an LBV. Some made in this style are able to be aged over the medium term, but not quite this long. Spirity and dark cherry dominate the nose. Mature flavours on the palate - licorice, tar and touches of plum. Decent, but the 1992 was better.
1985 Warre's Vintage Port
Quite pale ruby/rose petal pink in colour - surprisingly light. Developed nose of black tea and aniseed - surprisingly developed. On the palate, quite elegant, but disjointed with prominent acidity, quite spiritous, faded fruit. Okay, but not great for a VP.
1983 Warre's Vintage Port
Again, quite pale in colour. On this occasion, the nose is dominated by plum jam. Sweet, soft and mellow on the front palate but disappears way too quickly - no length whatsoever. A second VP that failed to impress.
1980 Warre's Vintage Port
Clear bright medium ruby red, deeper than the two younger wines. Clean nose of dark fruits and dark spices, reflected on the palate - dark plums, aniseed and licorice. Smooth and well integrated. We are improving.
1977 Warre's Vintage Port
Pale ruby in colour - the light colour of these wines seems to be a common theme - perhaps Warre's don't go for a huge amount of extraction? Strawberry jam on the nose this time. Palate-wise, sweet but not too sweet - a good thing. Well integrated with good length, but quite simple.
1970 Warre's Vintage Port
Lots of sediment. Faded mahogany in colour. Mature nose of leather, nutmeg and hickory. Sweet, elegant and very well integrated - a hot happening here. Wine of the night so far.
1966 Warre's Vintage Port
Mahogany verging on tawny in colour - could be mistaken for a Tawny Port. Fully mature nose of marzipan, leather and boot polish (touch of VA perhaps?). On the palate, more mature characters - fig, roasted nuts, tar and leather - sweet as all the wines have been. Very good but not quite up to the 1970.
1963 Warre's Vintage Port
Tawny in colour, no other way to describe it. The nose is slightly oxidised, also showing raisined berries and figs. In the mouth, sweet, soft and rich, nicely balanced and well integrated. Good, albeit on the downhill curve.
In summary, a very interesting tasting. It was particularly interesting to follow one house style, a style that seems to produce lighter elegant wines which are quite sweet (personally I think I prefer the more savoury wines produced by Quinta do Noval). For mine, the 1970 was the wine of the night, outperforming the wines from more fancied vintages (1963, 1977).
Good wines, but one has to question whether they are worth waiting 33 years to show their best (hell, if I started buying now I might well be dead by the time the wine was ready to drink!). However, I do have to admit a preference for Tawny Port over Vintage Port styles. The aged VP's were interesting, but better LBV's (with medium term ageing potential such as the 1997 Quinta do Noval) represent outstanding value for money at one third of the price of the Vintage equivalent (although one could not confuse the 1997 LBV with Quinta do Noval's 2000 VP).
Cheers
Phil
TV's - Warres Port tasting
Phil,
Nice notes. I also went to a Warre's tasting a couple months ago, and your notes are quite consistent with mine, although we only got to taste back to 1977. Dominic Symington was pouring, and it was very enlightening to chat with him. One treat we had was the 1937 Warre's Colheita, which I can still taste in my mind when I think about it:
1937 Warre's Colheita Nose of brown sugar, caramel, butterscoth, cognac-like. The wine is viscous, creamy, with layers and layers of incredible flavors: orange rind, butterscotch, almonds. This was the most amazing liquid I have ever put in my mouth - I could taste the afterglow of this wine for the rest of the day. I actually considered popping for the $300 this bottle cost, but came to my senses at the last minute. A rating is meaningless for a wine like this - how do you rate a life-altering experience?
Regards,
Alan
Nice notes. I also went to a Warre's tasting a couple months ago, and your notes are quite consistent with mine, although we only got to taste back to 1977. Dominic Symington was pouring, and it was very enlightening to chat with him. One treat we had was the 1937 Warre's Colheita, which I can still taste in my mind when I think about it:
1937 Warre's Colheita Nose of brown sugar, caramel, butterscoth, cognac-like. The wine is viscous, creamy, with layers and layers of incredible flavors: orange rind, butterscotch, almonds. This was the most amazing liquid I have ever put in my mouth - I could taste the afterglow of this wine for the rest of the day. I actually considered popping for the $300 this bottle cost, but came to my senses at the last minute. A rating is meaningless for a wine like this - how do you rate a life-altering experience?
Regards,
Alan