One year ago, I found out that I had 6 different Late Bottled Vintages from 1995 in my collection. I thought it would be a fun project to try to collect as many LBVs from that year as I could find. I now have some 25 different ones, so time to start tasting! RonnieRoots and Lady Roots kindly offered their assistance, and last Friday we tried the first 5.

The following months we will taste the “modern” (filtered) LBVs. I’ll keep the traditional ones in the cellar a bit longer, until the Warre and the Smith Woodhouse have been released. Wines were tasted blind and except for one, all were bottled in 2000.


This first tasting included:

Don Pablo (by C. da Silva, bottled in 2001) ($6)
Fonseca (WS 86) ($22)
Martinez ($15)
Porto Almiro (by Manoel D. Poças Jr.) ($12)
Taylor (WS 80) ($14)

The results (in reverse order of preference):

1. Extremely dark, almost purple. Very concentrated, even the legs were coloured! Nose: alcohol, nothing more. Very sharp. Full bodied, but without balance. Very sweet, some raisins and quite tannic. Finish is long an very hot and bitter. Yuck! This must be the Don Pedro, right? Nope, this was the Fonseca. Shocking!

2. Very light, with just a hint of brown; almost the colour of a Spanish rose. Not a very powerful nose, just a hint of alcohol. Very light, almost no tannins left. Sweet and artificial, short finish. This is bad stuff. Martinez, shame on you!

3. Dark ruby red. Also quite alcoholic, but less than the nr. 1. Fruity, but light bodied. Well balanced, with nice round tannins. Short, slightly hot finish. Nice, if this were a ruby. Could this be the Porto Almiro? No, this is the Taylor. Hmmmmmm.

4. Dark, almost black. Nice legs! Fruity on the nose, with pleasant berry aromas. Lots of ripe red fruit on the palate, slightly jammy. Round and warm, with a medium finish. Very nice! Yes, this was the Porto Almiro.

5. Oh boy, this looks good. Dark bodied, slightly brown on the edge. Good nose, with dark cherry and raspberry. Full bodied, with a nice ripe tannic structure. Medium sweet, with a hint of bitter adding an additional layer of interest. Finish rather sweet and warm, with dried fruits. Yes, this was the Don Pablo! Amazing.

Well, this tasting sure showed that labels aren’t everything. What’s more, if it weren’t for me collecting them, I would NEVER have bought either the Don Pablo or the Porto Almiro. I should be more opened minded, I guess…
It should be noted that the two winners of the night were closed with a “proper” cork, instead of the mushroom kind used on the other three. This, combine with age and provenance, might have caused these unexpected results of this tasting.

Anyhow, this was a lot of fun! Next tasting (in a month or so) will feature: Dow, Freitas, Graham’s, Rabelo’s and Rozès, the one after that: Barros, Cockburn, Croft, Delaforce and Kopke.

For me, this really showed the fun (and value!) of tasting blind. I would have never thought a B (or is it C) brand like Don Pablo could produce such a nice LBV.
But on the other hand, I was rather disappointed by the Fonseca. Let's hope it was the age...

This is really interesting. Here LBVs fetch 25€ except for Taylors (a large supermarket has it for 13€) and so I'm pretty grateful for experienced & unprejudiced info. Meanwhile all I buy is the Warre 1992 because it comes with such a pretty birth certificate...

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Free Winona!

25? That's a lot. I thought the Fonseca was way overpriced at 22, but I only saw it once. Most LBVs over here are between 12 and 15 Euros.

I knew I was in for some mouthwatering prices from you. A half bottle of Noval'96 costs in Spain 6€, here 12€. That seems to set the standard ("€ x2"). Ever wondered why I don't post many Port TNs? Anyway that's the price of choice, and at least there's some to pick from (about 8 at any given time, which is hilarious, but five years ago perhaps there might have been ONE)...So it's a blend of / , I guess...

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Free Winona!

Sorry Gastro, didn't mean to rub it in...