Tuesday, 7 October 2025

Morrison's The Best 10 Year Old Bottled In 2024

 Morrison's The Best 10 Year Old Bottled In 2024


Clear reddish brown colour with old citrus hints on the nose. Tasting revealed a rich and full bodied port. The taste was of cooked citrus fruits combined with a dry oakiness and a sweetness that brought the whole thing together. What surprised me was the lingering depth of this port because I wasn't expecting a supermarket offering to be this good. The price was £14 a bottle to holders of a Morrison's store card; I have tasted 10 year olds at twice this price that this could stand up against.

Cockburn's LBV 2019

 Cockburn's LBV 2019


Deep ruby colour with a lightly fruity nose. The initial taste was sweet and spicy then the plummy fruit flavours came in as the mouthful was swallowed. This left a lingering rich, peppery and fruity taste to enjoy between sips.

Thursday, 25 September 2025

Graham's LBV 2019

 Graham's LBV 2019


Deep and dark ruby colour with good plummy fruits on the nose. This port was pleasantly balanced with good depth. There was an underlying gentle sweet fruitiness and this was matched with tannin and wood flavours to add richness and complexity to the mix. All in all not a bad port for everyday drinking.

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Morrison's Ruby Port

Morrison's Ruby Port


Here we go with another supermarket sub £10 ruby port. It had a light ruby colour with a fruity nose. There was a rich and sweet flavour with tannins at the back of the palate. However any fruitiness was masked by a marked contribution from aldehydes. By that I mean the distinctive flavour that you experience when you suck on pear drops. If you like that sort of flavour in your port then you may appreciate this bottle at a very reasonable price. However I am not so keen as you get the same thing in a vintage port that has been decanted for too long.

Thursday, 4 September 2025

Taylor's Select Ruby Port

 Taylor's Select Ruby Port


My ruby port supply became seriously depleted so I decided to try a couple of bottles from out local Coop. Having just tried the sub £10 Coop Ruby and found it to be not too bad at all, here is a somewhat more expensive offering from Taylor's. It has a deep ruby colour with a lightly fruity nose. Tasting revealed a rich sweet wine with good depth. There were hints of jammy fruits but the fullness in the mouth was more striking. So for the conclusion this had greater strength and depth than the Coop offering but the latter did have an interesting plummy fruitiness about it. I honestly can't say which I prefer but you'll save yourself a deal of money if the Coop offering is to your taste.

Coop Ruby Port

 Coop Ruby Port

Well here we are with a sub £10 bottle of port from the local Coop. Do you need to pay more? Let's find out. There was a typical dark red colour with a promisingly fruity nose. Tasting revealed a rich plummy taste, which was well rounded and mouth filling. There were hints of smoothness masked by strong tannins. I doubt that this was more than three or four years in the balseiro but nevertheless at this price it is difficult to fault it. I have tasted far worse.

Thursday, 21 August 2025

Offley 10 Year Old Bottled In 2024

 Offley 10 Year Old Bottled In 2024


Clear and deep reddish brown colour with a rich nose of cooked citrus fruits and old oak. Tasting was quite an experience as it changed so much as it went down. To start with there was a combination of slightly sweet burnt orange and dry oak but as it went down there was a blossoming of rich floral flavours in the midst of the rich citrus and nuts nuances. A very worthy representative of ports of this delimination of age.