Andrew Jefford: A clearing, beefy red, given walnut gravity. Caramel and meat-stock aromas: more beefiness. Some ginger. Intriguingly grunty. Later, there’s a strange cherry-soda scent. Not precise, refined, or allusive... but I do wonder what it will taste like. The answer is sweet, caramel, and dark. There’s some tannin, and some acidity, and technically it is adequately balanced, but I find the raisiny fruits a little monotonous and wouldn’t go for a second glass 13

Richard Mayson: Deep center, with a thin browning rim; this wine must have started life inky black; overt, ripe, overripe minty-jam character; rich, mature, yet somehow hollow and lacking complexity. Cloyingly sweet and jammy, very soft but not voluptuous, like an old heavily made-up woman in a feather boa, dressed up to the nines! Sweet jammy length. One to respect and keep at a safe distance. Surely a New World Port style that isn’t? 12 Jancis Robinson: Yellow/greenish pale tawny. Very sweet, sticky, less noble aromas. A little thin on the mid-palate. Very marked acidity on the finish. Too old? The overall impression is certainly not of a particularly sweet wine. But it’s impressively long19: 90–2015 17