Semi-Great Vintage Port Tasting
Vintage 1979
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Wine Society 18%, we had decided to have some extra tasting during the year 2013 and we started our celebration with a Vintage tasting of 1979.
This Vintage was an off vintage, and was judge as Average. According to the Port Wine Institute only 13 houses declared. Michael Broadbent gave this vintage ** out of 5*, Suckling gave it 74 points out of 100 points.
The Wine Society 18% had a Semi-Great Tasting 28 February 2013 of the Vintage 1979. We call it Semi-Great because we had only 11 Vintages and not 20 Vintages which is our limit for calling it a Great Tasting. In addition to the 11 Vintages we had two extra ports from 1979, LBV 1979 from Smith-Woodhouse, bottled in 1984 and Colheita 1979 from Niepoort bottled in 1988. Both extra wines were included in the tasting and were given points. The Smith-Woodhouse LBV had Group points 15.63 and Group Ranking 7 and Niepoort’s Colheita 1979 had Group Points 14.7 and Group Ranking 11. (These are not included below since we focus on the Vintages.)
Tasting notes. Note that the points are for the actual bottle tasted. Read about how we set point on the page "How to understand our points valuations"
Sort on: Name Sten's rank Jörgen's rank Stefan's rank Group's rank
| House | Andresen | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Mature yellow in colour. |
| Bouquet | Elegant nose of nuts, mint and old hospital. |
| Taste | Medium body. Mature and peaking, but maybe a bit old. Still elegant and balanced port with an attractive and harmonic finish. Delicious! |
| SAI point | 15.75 | JB point | 15.75 | SS point | 15.50 | Group point | 15.84 |
| SAI rank | 7 | JB rank | 8 | SS rank | 7 | Group rank | 5 |
| Comment | |
| House | Borges | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Yellow, mature almost tawny in colour. |
| Bouquet | Not so intensive bouquet and maybe not quite clean? Ether, old hospital and some pharmacy in the nose. |
| Taste | Medium body. Some orange in the taste. Mature but not so tasty and balanced. Quite long but maybe not attractive finish |
| SAI point | 15.40 | JB point | 16.00 | SS point | 14.00 | Group point | 15.66 |
| SAI rank | 8 | JB rank | 4 | SS rank | 9 | Group rank | 6 |
| Comment | JB and SS had a split ranking SS: To me this showed hints of a defect cork. |
| House | Feist | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Mature yellow almost tawny in colour. |
| Bouquet | Fudge, candy and some pharmacy in the nose. Quite attractive. |
| Taste | Medium body. Fudge in taste. Mature and peaking and maybe just a little old. Balanced and elegant port with a long and attractive finish. |
| SAI point | 15.90 | JB point | 16.25 | SS point | 16.00 | Group point | 15.41 |
| SAI rank | 6 | JB rank | 3 | SS rank | 4 | Group rank | 7 |
| Comment | |
| House | Quinta dos Malvedos - Graham | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Still quite dark but yellow mature in colour. |
| Bouquet | Complex and quite generous bouquet with fudge, toffee, coffee, tea and much more in the nose. |
| Taste | Quite full-bodied. Mature and peaking. Crème caramel in the taste. Elegant and balanced port with a generous and delicious finish. Quite extraordinary for the vintage. |
| SAI point | 16.75 | JB point | 16.75 | SS point | 16.50 | Group point | 16.34 |
| SAI rank | 1 | JB rank | 1 | SS rank | 2 | Group rank | 1 |
| Comment | SS had a split ranking |
| House | Hooper | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Pale and tawny in colour. |
| Bouquet | This port is not harmonic and cracked. Terrible nose. |
| Taste | Medium body. Not balanced and quite hard to swallow. |
| SAI point | 11.00 | JB point | 11.00 | SS point | 11.00 | Group point | 13.13 |
| SAI rank | 11 | JB rank | 11 | SS rank | 11 | Group rank | 11 |
| Comment | |
| House | Kopke | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Mature yellow in colour. |
| Bouquet | Crème caramel, old grocery shop, coffee and tea in the nose. |
| Taste | Medium body. Mature and peaking. Crème caramel in the taste. An elegant port with a long and balanced finish. Very good indeed. |
| SAI point | 16.00 | JB point | 15.90 | SS point | 15.90 | Group point | 15.91 |
| SAI rank | 4 | JB rank | 7 | SS rank | 5 | Group rank | 4 |
| Comment | SAI had a split ranking |
| House | Quinta do Bomfim - Dow | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Mature yellow in colour. |
| Bouquet | Crème caramel, toffee, old grocery shop in the generous and lovely bouquet. |
| Taste | Almost full bodied. Mature and peaking. Toffee and crème caramel in the taste. Elegant and balanced with a long, attractive and quite wonderful finish. |
| SAI point | 16.50 | JB point | 16.50 | SS point | 16.75 | Group point | 16.25 |
| SAI rank | 2 | JB rank | 2 | SS rank | 1 | Group rank | 2 |
| Comment | |
| House | Quinta do Cachao - Messias | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Pale but yellow mature in colour. |
| Bouquet | Cacao, old grocery shop and dark chocolate in the nose. |
| Taste | Medium body. Mature and peaking. Lovely cacao in taste. Balanced and elegant port. Honey in the finish, which is quite long and attractive. |
| SAI point | 16.00 | JB point | 16.00 | SS point | 16.50 | Group point | 15.31 |
| SAI rank | 4 | JB rank | 4 | SS rank | 2 | Group rank | 8 |
| Comment | SAI, JB and SS had a split ranking |
| House | Quinta da Cavadinha - Warre | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Still rather dark but yellow mature in colour. |
| Bouquet | Cherry, nuts, plum and fruit in a generous bouquet. |
| Taste | Medium body. Nuts and fruit in the taste. Mature and peaking. Balanced and elegant with a long, complex and attractive finish. |
| SAI point | 16.40 | JB point | 15.50 | SS point | 15.00 | Group point | 15.94 |
| SAI rank | 3 | JB rank | 9 | SS rank | 8 | Group rank | 3 |
| Comment | SS: Odd bouquet with tropical fruit, not quite what I expected. Taste ok. |
| House | Real Vinicola | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Almost tawny in colour. |
| Bouquet | Some toffee but also ether and old hospital. |
| Taste | Medium body. Some unbalanced with acidity. Quite old and passed its peak but drinkable and with a rather long but not quite harmonic finish. Should have been enjoyed some years ago. |
| SAI point | 13.00 | JB point | 11.50 | SS point | 14.00 | Group point | 13.34 |
| SAI rank | 10 | JB rank | 10 | SS rank | 9 | Group rank | 10 |
| Comment | SS had a split ranking This bottle was unbalanced with acidic acid. SS: At first ok with elegancy, flowers and ether but cracking in the glass, maybe too high points from me. JB: unattractive tones of acetic acid in the bouquet as well as the taste |
| House | Silva-Luz | Vintage | 1979 |
| Colour | Pale, mature yellow, almost tawny in colour. |
| Bouquet | Rather shy in the nose but with some toffee. Fudge and nuts |
| Taste | Medium body. Mature and a bit more. Have been better. Fudge in taste. Still knit together and balanced and quite good finish. Still very enjoyable and interesting. |
| SAI point | 14.50 | JB point | 16.00 | SS point | 15.75 | Group point | 14.88 |
| SAI rank | 9 | JB rank | 4 | SS rank | 6 | Group rank | 9 |
| Comment | JB had a split ranking |