1991 port horizontal, 9th December

On Monday evening, G invited me to attend a gathering of the Port Forum, as he had organised a horizontal tasting of 1991 port. I made sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day beforehand, and successfully got myself to the Boot and Flogger. Although I was slightly early, several people were there already and glasses were being filled.

Ready for action!

There were 14 in attendance and 16 ports to taste, a formidable line-up. While I enjoy port, I don't have much of my own and what I do have isn't ready, so I'm not very au fait with how past vintages stack up, but it soon became apparent that 1991 was not held in high regard by the assembled company. One fellow guest spent much of the evening sighing and I could only conclude that his cellar was far more impressive. Still, for me, this was a very interesting experience and I enjoyed most of them.

The full line up

This was not in fact my first time attending the forum - a few weeks ago, I was invited by G to a smaller blind tasting where everyone brought a mystery bottle along. The take-home point for me that evening was that no two bottles of port, especially old port, are the same because their history and storage has a significant influence on what comes out of the bottle. Previously I had thought that if you drank say a Croft 1966 and then you drank another Croft 1966 they would be virtually identical, but it seems that's unlikely to be the case.

Returning to the 1991s, G was pleased to have found this bottle of Quinta do Noval Nacional going for less than the market rate in a famous wine shop in New York, of all places, and had arranged to get it shipped to D who had brought it over for this occasion. As I'm sure anyone who knows their port will know, this stuff is rare and commands an unusually high price, typically going for 10 times as much as other ports, so it's not often one gets to drink it. However, it failed to shine amongst the competition. For me it was accomplished and did have a lovely finish, but wasn't even in my top 5. G told me that this was from the "bad period" at Nacional, which perhaps explains it.

At the end of the evening we were each required to allocate six points between the wines, and the final scores are above. The scoring system seemed to end up giving disproportionately high marks to the top two wines, but it was clear that Croft and Taylor Vargellas were the winners.

I managed not to disgrace myself by getting my score in early and giving three points to the Croft. My notes say "this Croft is marvellous" and for me it had plums (high quality plums according to G), dark chocolate, liquorice and maybe even some leather. It was serious and less sweet than some, and we thought it would be fine for another 15 years.

Runner up was this Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, which was classy, with prunes, dates and figs - I described it as panforte in a glass. It had a great finish. I didn't get much on the nose, possibly because I tasted it after the Cockburn Quinta Dos Canais, which was the main dud of the evening, with an extraordinary whiff of nail polish cleaner. "Genuinely undrinkable" said G.

Other honourable mentions go to the normal Noval which I liked although nobody else gave it any points, the Quinta de la Rosa and the Nieport.

All done!

This was a fascinating opportunity to try these wines side by side and thanks G for inviting me!