Port Tasting at our local wine store

[Old Sailor]

Originally Posted by tsolomon

I went to a Port tasting at our local wine store and it was billed as Fonseca and Taylor Ports with Robert Bower. We did not taste any of the older vintage ports, but they did have 4 ports that were very different in style and taste. My wife and I only recently started drinking ports, so we can only say that we enjoyed listening to Robert while he poured and encouraged us to drink. The tasting list with some comments.

Croft “Distinction” - a young large barrel port that really stays on the palette, not too sweet and very enjoyable for the price.

Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage 2001 - nice flavor, but a little on the sweet side.

Fonseca 10 Year Tawny - a nice tawny port, very subtle but rich with flavor

Taylor Fladgate 20 Year Tawny - this was my first 20 year and it was definitely the one I liked the best. Smooth and rich is how I would decribe it.

We had a lot of fun listening to Robert talk about Ports and saying that only 20% of the port produced every year is worth drinking. We ended up buying a bottle of each to try later on. I really want to get a bottle of the Taylor 10 year Tawny to compare with the Fonseca 10 year Tawny. My only complaint is that it is impossible to do a good tasting when drinking out of little plastic cups.

[mosesbotbol]

Sounds like an interesting mix of ports you sampled.

Taylor 20 is always welcomed. It gets bashed a lot, but is still a good 20 year. If you have a few friends, buy a couple of bottles of the same style port to compare. It's not really fair to compare two totally different styles of port.

LBV's are good with turkey, hint hint... Warre, Ramos Pinto, Borges make nice LBV's. I tend to look for "unfiltered" and something from the 90's if possible.

Let us know who you find Taylor vs. Fonseca in 10 year tawny comp.