NV Honore Very Old Tawny Port
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To celebrate 400-year history of the Quinta. A very old tawny port, over 100 years of age, from a very limited number of casks containing wines made before 1918, belonging to Constantino de Almeida’s private stock nurtured during three generations on the quinta. Tasted from a miniature bottle. Deep browny colour like dark toffee. And really nutty and intense on the nose. Glorious intensity of dark bitter marmalade reduced down as far as you can take it without loss of orange flavour. But mainly walnut skin. On the palate, viscous, dense and incredibly concentrated. Sweet but full of life. One sip lasts forever. A cross between bitter treacle and dried apricots. Utterly unspittable and yet you need just a thimbleful to last the evening because the flavour goes on for ever. Rich and full in the mouth. It is a concentrated elixir rather than a refreshing, silky tawny, so don't expect the latter. Sip cautiously. (JH)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
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A special bottling to celebrate 400 years. Very dark blackish brown – thick and dense. Very reduced with painful acidity and a bit of prunes. Not fine. Extremely volatile! Really not much fun, however old this is. (JR)
The NV Honore Very Old Tawny Port was bottled in December 2015 with a long cork. It was aged in 550-liter wood casks for, the winery estimates, about 140 years, making it one of those 19th Century Ports the Douro folks release on occasion in handsome and upscale packaging. It comes in with a little over 300 grams per liter of residual sugar. When this was first seen, it had just been pulled from barrel as a quick sample. It is commercialized now (with that gorgeous packaging, everything you'd expect from a high-end 19th Century Porto). The winery says that this "very unique and special wine is a result of three very old port barrels, from the private cellar of Constantino de Almeida, the great grandfather of Miguel and Tomás." That's the Roquette brothers, of course, of the family that owns Crasto, so this isn't a random purchase—the family has been in charge of this since Day One. Manuel Lobo, the winemaker at Crasto currently, said the three casks were almost empty. There were just 400 bottles produced in this one-and-only release. These old tawnies change very slowly—take that end-date drinking window as just a placeholder, barring cork failures—so not a lot has changed since my first look at it. This has jaw-dropping concentration. It dribbles across the palate, as I said before, more like an old Moscatel Superior—slowly, with honeyed texture. A spoon won't stand up in it, but we're not too far off. I only joke a little. The fruit is very mature. For some tasters, the seared molasses and treacle might even be a touch too much. Even for its age, it's not exactly a wine with fresh fruit on the palate—even though the general demeanor seems surprisingly lively with good acidity. Of course, it's not supposed to seem young. The sugar, though, balances this brilliantly. Whenever the treacle is in full swing, the sugar steps up and coats it. Your mouth starts to water because this is just so delicious. If you can afford the price and you like old tawny ports, you can't go wrong here.