At the First Glass Fine Wine Wednesday tasting the last week of February, we were in for a treat. The theme was 'Everything International' with the majority of wines from Europe and although most of the wines were going to be served blind, the email announced that we would be finishing with one of the great wines of the 20th century, the Taylors 1977 Vintage Port. At a recommended retail of $175, it is a luxury wine for a $15 tasting. "Don’t leave early" the email advised, not that anyone usually does.

I was looking forward to tasting this treasure for exalted wines like this do not fall within my budget or appear at wine tastings very often. Eventually, after eleven interesting wines, the Port was served.

Here's what I wrote. "Tawny with a pinkish red tinge and headily spirituous on nose, behind this raisins and cedar. Very smooth in the palate with lovely viscosity, there's liquorice, spice, cardamon, orange and old cedar, the alcohol kicks in and a delicious liquorice and orange flavour emerges to linger on the finish".

Sure it was a beautiful Port, a nice wine, a 5-star wine, but was it a great Port? Was it an exceptional Port? I was expecting something totally orgasmic but this was underwhelming in that respect. If this was one of the great wines of the 20th century, I figured I could not appreciate the style.

I asked Neil what he thought? He too thought it was overpowered by the alcohol.

The next day I managed to find time to log on to the Wine Lovers Page Wednesday night Chat (0300 Thursday GMT or 4pm Thursday NZ time during daylight savings), and in the chatroom was Portolover, alias Roy Hersch of Seattle, a Port aficionado who has just been described by Jancis Robinson as "one of the world's most knowledgable and generous Port ambassadors".

"Roy, tell me about the Taylors Vintage Port 1977?", I typed.

"This is a stunning wine, if ever there was one, one of the great Taylors of the last 50 years. A wine with 40 more years ahead of it, easily", came his reply across the screen.

"We had it last night", I tapped. "I don’t think I can appreciate the greatness of this wine. It was so spirituous on the nose and the alcohol wanted to take over in the palate as well".

"The alcohol was sheer youth. It will become more mellow with time", came his reply. "Was it decanted?" he asked.

"Yes, they decanted the bottles into jugs about half an hour before to remove the sediment". I described the colour to him, tawnyish, still with hues of pink.

"That is the colour of a just opened bottle", I read when his reply showed up on the screen. " If it had been decanted properly, it would have been a youthful bright ruby with just a smattering of age showing on the edge."

"Decanted properly? What do you mean?" I typed.

"To appreciate a Port of this age it would be have been best to decant about 12 hours beforehand", replied Roy.

"Why?", I asked. "As you can see I'm terrible naïve about Port."

"Deacanting darkens the colour, allows the Port to gain serious viscosity, the alcohol fumes blows off and the perfume is enhanced, the tannins mellow, the alcohol in the palate integrates and the complexity shows. It would not have been so spirituous if it had been decanted – that is purely youthful exuberance or cork taint", he explained. "To appreciate this great wine, you should have decanted for a MINIMUM of 10 hours."

"But I what if I don’t want to drink the whole bottle? Do I just decant the amount I think we will drink?"

"No. Decant the whole bottle straight away. After the sediment has settled pour half into a 375ml bottle right up to the cork and seal."

"Luckily we now have 375 ml bottles in screwcap here."

"Even better!"

"How long can I keep the Port once opened?"

"You should not keep it past the 3rd day. Keep it in the refrigerator if you keep it overnight or a few days. After that I find a change in the freshness. You also have to be wary of buying a glass of vintage Port in a restaurant. It could have been open for months", he warned.

We had been told that last night. 'Don’t order vintage port in a restaurant unless they open the bottle for you'.

So now I am wiser about appreciating fine Port and if I ever get the opportunity to try the Taylors 1977 again, I hope it will have been decanted for at least 10 hours so I can experienced the giddy heights of pleasure this wine should give.

Roy is absolutely the best when it comes to Port and he gives him time freely when logging in to the Wine Lovers Page Chat Room. He has also just started a new Port newsletter 'FOR THE LOVE OF PORT', an e-mail newsletter that is free. To get on the list send an email to portolover@aol.com and give him your first name, last name, city and country.

© Sue Courtney
28th February 2004