Most folk would deem it complete folly, not to say infanticide, to drink a port so young

Lord Copper, for as Pete and I discovered, old Beaujolais does indeed have its charms. Although the label of said bottle was in a sorry state and it took a full 10 days for the dust-like sediment to settle, the colour and the level of the liquid were both fine and all looked good for lift-off.

We uncorked it gingerly and found there to be nothing off-putting with the first exploratory sniff, either. Indeed, we both agreed it would pass easily for fine old Burgundy, the constituent grape, Gamay, seemingly having morphed into Pinot Noir as it aged. Quality Beaujolais and Burgundy have much in common: young and jammy or old and gamey.

The first sip showed that the juicy fruit had largely gone, to be replaced by meaty,

My second bottle was the recently declared 2018 Taylor’s vintage port, which I had been kindly sent. Most folk would deem it complete folly, not to say infanticide, to drink a port so young, but having planned simply to have a sip or two and write up some tasting notes, drink it I did and with immense pleasure, too. It was deep, dark and intense with many layers of zingy, richly flavoured, damson/plum fruit and spice. There were noticeable tannins, of course, but not so bold as to get in the way of any enjoyment.

In essence, it was the perfect ruby port and if I had managed to keep it for another 30 years, as tradition suggests, it wouldn’t necessarily be any better, it would just be different. Utterly magnificent