Twenty five-year old vintage port – a complete assessment

I took part in a fascinating blind tasting of 1977 vintage ports in March 2002 when they would all be approaching their quarter century. Except that, unbeknown to most of us, Quinta do Noval which (like Cockburn) did not declare 1977 as a vintage, sent in their two 1978s. (This is a producer which is much improved recently – see for example my Wine of the Week, 4 Dec 2001 – but in this era aged all its wines far up the Douro valley, opening them to the possibility of acquiring the flat flavours of 'Douro bake'.)

The wines are...