Sandeman vintage ports back to 1944

George Sandeman, the figurehead of the Sandeman port house, showed off 20 vintages of Sandeman port in London last month. Talk about warts and all… Or, as he put it, 'we wanted to demonstrate the downs as well as the ups'. What this varied range showed was that you certainly shouldn't depend on any consistency from this house, at least historically.

As he admitted, during the 1980s Sandeman ports were 'weakening'. The first decade of this century he felt was 'the recovery of the classic style'.  It's certainly true that the most impressive sustained performance was this century's. The 1978...