Great Vintage Port Tasting
Delaforce
The Wine Society 18% had a tasting of the house Delaforce on January 18, 2018. We had 12 different Vintages and Single Quinta Vintages from 1963 to 2004. The tasting was blind, meaning that the group did not know the theme of the tasting. They didn't even know that all 12 wines were from the same producer or that they were Vintage Ports. Only the arrangers of the tasting, in this case Stefan and another member of the Wine Society 18%, knew the setup.
We have tasted more different Vintages from the house of Delaforce which you can read here.
The wines were served ordered by age, youngest first and oldest last, and most of the group soon figured out that it was probably one and the same producer for all wines. But the truth was not revealed until the points were given.
The tasting really showed a consistent house style of Delaforce. Many of the wines had a clear spiciness with ginger, cacao and liquorice (some in the group said salmiac). The wines are in general quite elegant and light in style with soft tannins already in the younger vintages, but with quite long and balanced finish. Overall the last four wines, 1985 - 1977 - 1970 - 1963, got significantly better scores than the rest. They all showed a bigger depth in the taste and better complexity. The overall winner looking at the group's average was 1970 with 1963 in an honourable second place.
All the bottles
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: Vintage Sten's rank Jörgen's rank Stefan's rank Group's rank
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1963 |
Colour | Yellow mature almost tawny in colour. |
Bouquet | Very generous and quite complex elegant nose with figs, liquorice, burned sugar, dried fruit and crème caramel. |
Taste | Medium body. Full mature and peaking. Balanced with good concentration, very elegant sweet and delicious taste of crema caramel, burned sugar and liquorice. A nice rather long and sweet finish. Delicious port indeed. |
SAI point | 16.75 | JB point | 16.40 | SS point | 16.40 | Group point | 16.17 |
SAI rank | 3 | JB rank | 2 | SS rank | 4 | Group rank | 2 |
Comment | |
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1970 |
Colour | Beautiful mature yellow in colour. |
Bouquet | Complex delicious old grocery shop, raisin, crème caramel, cacao, some dark chocolate and ginger in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Fully mature and on top indeed. Balanced and complex, elegant, sweet port with old grocery shop, crème caramel, cacao in taste. Really good and generous port with a lovely and very attractive finish. |
SAI point | 16.90 | JB point | 17.00 | SS point | 16.75 | Group point | 16.50 |
SAI rank | 1 | JB rank | 1 | SS rank | 2 | Group rank | 1 |
Comment | |
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1977 |
Colour | Yellow mature in colour. |
Bouquet | Cinnamon, ginger, cacao, some spiciness and coffee in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Mature and peaking. Elegant and balanced. A lovely port. Spiciness and ginger in taste with a long wonderful and attractive finish. |
SAI point | 16.90 | JB point | 16.25 | SS point | 16.90 | Group point | 16.03 |
SAI rank | 1 | JB rank | 3 | SS rank | 1 | Group rank | 3 |
Comment | |
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1985 |
Colour | Yellow mature beautiful in colour. |
Bouquet | Raisin, crème caramel, candy, a hint of cacao and burned sugar in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Mature and peaking and will not be better. Balanced and silky, sweet and complex with crème caramel, candy and burned sugar in taste. Easy to drink and enjoy. Quite delicious and attractive finish. |
SAI point | 16.40 | JB point | 16.25 | SS point | 16.50 | Group point | 15.90 |
SAI rank | 4 | JB rank | 3 | SS rank | 3 | Group rank | 4 |
Comment | |
House | Quinta da Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 1987 |
Colour | Yellow mature quit beautiful in colour. |
Bouquet | Apricots, figs, cacao and candy and even some coffee in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Mature and at its peak. Very tasty with cacao, chocolate and candy in taste. Is probably peaking. Elegant and balanced. Nice and quite attractive finish. Easy to drink and like. |
SAI point | 15.90 | JB point | 15.90 | SS point | 15.50 | Group point | 15.37 |
SAI rank | 6 | JB rank | 6 | SS rank | 9 | Group rank | 6 |
Comment | |
House | Quinta da Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 1991 |
Colour | Yellow mature, quite beautiful in colour. |
Bouquet | Toffee, crème caramel, butterscotch, ginger, sweet liquorice and much more in the nose. |
Taste | Quite full-bodied. Mature and almost on top. Will not be much better so drink and enjoy. Crème caramel, sweet liquorice and butterscotch in taste. Balanced and complex port with a lovely and quite attractive finish. |
SAI point | 15.75 | JB point | 16.00 | SS point | 15.75 | Group point | 15.33 |
SAI rank | 7 | JB rank | 5 | SS rank | 8 | Group rank | 7 |
Comment | |
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1992 |
Colour | Quite dark but yellow mature in colour. |
Bouquet | Minty, candy, sweetmeats, cream candy and kernels. |
Taste | Medium body. Kernels, sweet meats and mint in taste. Still some very soft tannin and will maybe be better but is quite mature and almost peaking. Balanced and rather complex with a nice and quite long finish. |
SAI point | 16.00 | JB point | 15.50 | SS point | 16.00 | Group point | 15.63 |
SAI rank | 5 | JB rank | 7 | SS rank | 6 | Group rank | 5 |
Comment | |
House | Delaforce | Vintage | 1994 |
Colour | Still rather dark but with a yellow mature edge in colour. |
Bouquet | Sweetmeats, sweet liquorice, toffee, fudge and herbal in the nose. |
Taste | Medium bodied. Complex but still with soft tannin but is almost mature. Herbal, cream candy and sweet liquorice in flavour. Will probably improve but has already now an attractive and rather long finish. Will be exciting to follow but is already now easy to drink and to like. |
SAI point | 15.40 | JB point | 14.90 | SS point | 15.90 | Group point | 15.07 |
SAI rank | 10 | JB rank | 9 | SS rank | 7 | Group rank | 9 |
Comment | |
House | Quinta da Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 1995 |
Colour | Still quite dark but with a mature yellow rim in colour. |
Bouquet | Mulberry, blueberry and dark berry but also raisin and crème caramel in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Rather young with some soft tannin. Raisin, crème caramel and berry in the taste. Will probably be better even if it is easy to drink today. A rather long and interesting finish. |
SAI point | 15.00 | JB point | 14.90 | SS point | 15.40 | Group point | 15.27 |
SAI rank | 12 | JB rank | 9 | SS rank | 10 | Group rank | 8 |
Comment | |
House | Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 1997 |
Colour | Still quite dark with a small yellow edge. |
Bouquet | Cacao, liquorice, dark chocolate, cherry, cream candy and some ginger in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Rather mature and balanced with some quite soft tannin. Cacao, toffee and dark chocolate in taste. Rather complex with a nice finish. Very easy to drink indeed. |
SAI point | 15.25 | JB point | 15.00 | SS point | 16.25 | Group point | 14.73 |
SAI rank | 11 | JB rank | 8 | SS rank | 5 | Group rank | 12 |
Comment | |
House | Quinta da Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 2001 |
Colour | Dark ruby in colour, almost black. |
Bouquet | Dark berry, lot of mulberry and black berry and much more in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Still tannin and will be better but balanced and very attractive in taste with blackberry, black cherry and mulberry. Quite elegant and easy to enjoy and to drink. Rather complex even if berry and fruit still is dominating. A quite long and attractive finish. |
SAI point | 15.75 | JB point | 14.90 | SS point | 15.25 | Group point | 14.90 |
SAI rank | 7 | JB rank | 9 | SS rank | 11 | Group rank | 10 |
Comment | |
House | Corte Delaforce | Vintage | 2004 |
Colour | Dark ruby in colour, almost black. |
Bouquet | Dark cherry, black berry, dark berry and mulberry in the nose. |
Taste | Medium body. Loaded with dark berry, dark cherry, and fruit and much more in the taste. Still quite a lot of tannin and will be better but balanced and easy to drink and like. Quite elegant and a lovely but quite acidic finish. This port will be lovely to follow! |
SAI point | 15.50 | JB point | 14.90 | SS point | 14.90 | Group point | 14.83 |
SAI rank | 9 | JB rank | 9 | SS rank | 12 | Group rank | 11 |
Comment | |