Author Archives: Mads Barnkob

Burmester Vintage Port 1997 (Tasted 2020)

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Tasted 23-12-2020. Burmester is owned by the Calem brand: https://www.disorder.dk/2013/11/26/visiting-calem-in-porto/

Taste notes 1 hour after decanting

Beautiful red color with orange notes. Clear and with heavy curtains.

Powerful aroma with a slight alcohol, but good fruit and sharp licorice and tannins.

Taste comes off with sharp tannins, almost burning in combination with the alcohol. Powerful dried fruits and raisins in the after taste.

Intermediate rating 87 / 100

Taste notes 5 hours after decanting

Color has turned into the darker reds.

Aroma is free of the dominating alcohol.

Tannins have settle and makes the tasting experience better.

Intermediate rating 89 / 100

Taste notes 22 hours after decanting

Color has taken on some brown notes to the dark red.

Complex aroma with a balanced fruit and heavy darkness.

Full bodied with good tannin. Easy to drink, long after taste and clearly not going to perform better with more oxygen.

Overall rating 91 / 100

Borges Vintage Port 1946

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This is one of those mysterious bottles of Port. There is no way of knowing if it is going to be good or bad. I bought this 750 ml glass bottle, with very little information and fortunately at only 15€.

The bottle comes with a story. A fellow Dane had a Portuguese friend, who visited Denmark in the mid-seventies. As a gift, he brought him two bottles of Port. A “Borges Vintage Port 1970” and a bottle only labelled “I.V.D.P Vinho do Porto 1946”. The story of the latter, it is supposedly a cask sample from the Port Wine Institute, but there is no evidence backing that up. But that is the story of this 77 year old Port.

Before opening the bottle, it was still completely unknown, where it was from and who made it. Revealing a Borges cork, was very reassuring to the history and that it was given together with another Borges Port.

The wine is very clear with a light brown color, shining notes of orange.

The aroma has many facets. Cask, oak, spicy and very dry dried fruits and still with a dominating alcohol, right after opening. It was afterwards only decanted for an hour.

The taste comes off a bit flat from the start. It is a very sweet wine, but yet with some complexity to it. Extreme long after taste, which eventually reveals notes of cask and smoke. A very interesting taste experience that is hard to describe. There was just some notes in the taste, that even old Vintage Port like 30 years, does not have, and yet on the other side, it was also over age.

12 hours after opening, it has turned completely into Madeira, but with less life to it.

Overall rating 91 / 100

Quinta do Portal Vintage Port Magnum 2006

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Quinta Do Portal is a family owned wine yard and maker, founded in the 1990s in Porto, Portugal. The vintages from Portal is recommended to be stored for 10 years as they aim for a lighter Port to distinguish themselves form the traditional tannin heavy Douro Port.

I bought this 1500 ml magnum bottle, back in 2016 at the price of 24€, on a sale from a Danish wine shop.

We drank the wine to a large meal of red meat, potatoes, vegetables and salads. It worked so well with a powerful and potent wine to the red meat.

Taste notes right after decanting

Beautifully clear and light red in the color.

Powerful aroma, full of good dried fruit notes, but dominated by the alcohol.

The taste is not that powerful, alcohol shines too hard through it yet, but there is a good dried raisins in the after taste.

Intermediate rating 83 / 100

Taste notes 3 hours after decanting

Aroma has lessened on the alcohol and gives off notes of spices and dried fruits.

The taste has evolved into a powerful Port, alcohol is no longer dominating.

Overall rating 89 / 100

Refsvindinge – Sort Enke

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Refsvindinge Bryggeri was established in 1885, by the Rasmussen family. It is located near Ørbæk in Denmark. The brewery is still in the Rasmussens family possession, currently at 4th generation. It was mostly a malt beer brewery and the first pilsner was brewed in 1986. The current company construction was established in 1981 and 2004 as an anpartsselskab.

This 330 ml glass bottled beer at 5.7% alcohol level was gifted to me from family, as a birthday present, price unknown.

Thick flowing, deep brown and unfiltered like rye porridge.

No head or foam.

Aroma is dominated by the alcohol but also has notes of darkness to it.

Good CO2 level, balances will with the darkness and alcohol. Not so much fruit in the taste, from the wheat.

Overall rating 68 / 100

Refsvindinge – Den Grå Enke

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Refsvindinge Bryggeri was established in 1885, by the Rasmussen family. It is located near Ørbæk in Denmark. The brewery is still in the Rasmussens family possession, currently at 4th generation. It was mostly a malt beer brewery and the first pilsner was brewed in 1986. The current company construction was established in 1981 and 2004 as an anpartsselskab.

This 330 ml glass bottled beer at 5.7% alcohol level was gifted to me from family, as a birthday present, price unknown.

Brown color beer with orange notes to it, slightly hazy. No head or foam.

The aroma comes off with a smoked fruit. Which makes sense from the smoked barley.

Good CO2 level. Smoked wheated fruit in the taste with a slight bitterness. Alcohol does take over the after taste too much. Has some dark ale notes in the after taste as well.

Overall rating 75 / 100

St. Paul – White

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The brewery “Brouwerij Sterkens” is located in Meer, Belgium. The brewery was founded in 1651 and is a family business through 14 generations.

I bought this beer from a wine shop in Odense, Denmark at the price of 4 Euro for a 330 ml bottle at 4,8%

Beautiful yellow and white in the colour.

Gigantic sized head with a fine foam on the top.

Powerful and balanced fruit aroma with peaks of fruited, flowery and sweet hops.

CO2 is too weak, somewhat flat in the taste and mostly a mix of hops and flowers in the taste.

Overall rating 77 / 100

Danevang – Julewit

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Skanderborg Bryghus is located in Skanderborg, Denmark. This brewery was established in 2015.

I bought this beer at a local supermarket in Odense, Denmark. Price is guessed to be around 4 Euro. This biodynamic beer comes in a 500 ml glass bottle at 4.8% alcohol.

It flows thick as porridge, it very hazy and yellow in the color. Head and foam disappears fast.

Aroma is pretty anonymous. A hint of wheat, that is all.

Good CO2 level. Delicious wheaten fruit notes and full bodied taste. Thins out in the after taste, but good balance. It should have been branded as a weissbier, as it resembles that more, than a witbier.

Overall rating 77 / 100.

Svendborgsund Bryghus – Sol over sundet

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I bought this 500 ml bottled wheat beer with added elderflower cordial, at 4.9% alcohol, in a wine shop in Rudkøbing, Langeland, Denmark at the price of 6 Euro.

The presentation of the beer is great. Thick hazy yellow with orange notes.

A medium sized head with a fine foam.

Fruity and elderflower in the medium strength aroma.

Powerful CO2, a sweet fruit dominates the taste. Aftertaste is a bit more mysterious with notes of dark ale.

Overall rating 80 / 100

Quinta Do Noval Silval Vintage Port 1998

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Taste notes right after decanting

Clear thin red in the color, brown notes, but not going into the violet spectrum. Thin curtains on the walls of the glass.

Ripe fruit in the aroma with a dominating alcohol. Some spicy notes and darkness to it.

Good balance between tannin and fruit, warm and bossy from the alcohol. Leaves a good after taste of dried fruits. Hopefully it will become more full bodied the more air it gets.

Intermediate rating 87 / 100

Taste notes 3 hours after decanting

The color is a bit darker, it has become a more deep red.

Aroma has picked up a bit on the spices, but is still dominated by alcohol.

A bit more notes of the grapes in the taste, tannins relaxing a bit more but still a tad to the thin side.

Intermediate rating 88 / 100

Taste notes 7 hours after decanting

No significant change in color or aroma, since last taste note.

More dried fruits in the taste and a longer after taste. Alcohol has diminished a bit.

Overall rating 89 / 100

Dow Vintage Port 2004 Quinta do Bomfim #2 (2021)

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This vintage port comes at a alcohol percentage of 20% in a 375 ml glass bottle.

Taste notes right after opening and decanting

Clear and deep red in the color. Heavy curtains on the sides of the glass.

Powerful dark aroma with spices and dried fruits. Complex composition.

Soft tannins with a good dried fruits taste. Medium strength and with more dried fruits in the after taste.

Drink now.

Intermediate rating 89 / 100

Taste notes 3 hours after decanting

Much more balanced tasting experience.

Overall rating 91 / 100