I tasted the following Ports at the Wine Society’s London tasting and thought my albeit rather brief notes were worth recording:
Deep, youthful and demure on the nose, yet rich, fresh and vibrant on the palate, intense, seemingly quite sweet (for Dow), with layers of ripe tannin and a firm finish. Only just ready to drink and will be good for another 15 years at least. 18
Once again I am very grateful to the Port Forum, especially Rob Coombes, for inviting me to this triple vertical tasting of three second tier houses belonging to the Symington family. All three of these shippers have a reputation for value-for-money Vintage Port and I was interested both to see how the wines from all three houses have developed as well as to compare the style of the wines.
This is the second time I have been invited to the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club to lead a Vintage Port tasting. The first dinner three years ago was organised by the Chairman of the Wine Committee, Arnold Smith, who provided wines from some of the best vintages of the twentieth century, going back to 1927 (see entry for 13thMay 2008). Given the supremely high standard all the wines, it was one of the finest Port dinners that I have attended.