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So now I have to ask, what's the deal with the leaking corks 6x closed case comes in and 2 of the bottles are leaking terribly. Sorry if this comes across as being blunt, but: why did you buy these? You can't say you haven't been warned! In numerous threads both here and on FTLOP there has been men...

Possibly even lighter in colour than the regular Royal Oporto. Dusty nose with very little else. Perhaps a hint of strawberries if you really want to smell it. Very dilute on the palate, some tea leaves, glycerol and generally quite hot. Definitely worse than the Royal Oporto. Not liked at all, and ...

Tawny colour, very alcoholic nose, quite unappetising. To taste very spirity, with incredibly artificial sweets, otherwise completely turned to tawny. Short finish. One to pass upon if you come across it and to drink up fast if you have it.

Another port that's best summarised by the word "light". Light pink / orange colour, and light on the nose, which does show some lovely rose aromas. Light fruit on the palate, strawberry and raspberry. Some leather and tobacco. Slightly simple, but the flavours and aromas are all very attr...

Light is the keyword here. Light coloured, light on the nose (other than showing harsh spirit) and light flavours on the palate. Although we agreed that the bottle was slightly off, I did quite enjoy the flavours: some strawberry, milk chocolate, raisin and almond. Not bad at all, but certainly up t...

Quite light in colour, with still a nice lively core. Slightly dusty on the nose, quite light, not giving much initially. Rather complex and lovely on the palate, with good structure. Some attractive light fruit (strawberries, figs) with some orange peel, nutty flavours and a long finish. I thought ...

I wasn't half as enthusiastic as AHB on this one. I found it too pale in colour, with a tawny-ish nose. Almonds and hazelnuts on the palate, with raisins and dried fruit. Perhaps still hints of what could have been, but mainly tawny characteristics. Too much evolved and dissapointing for Taylor. I'v...

Light, but lovely colour changing from ruby to garnet. Slightly dusty / leathery on the nose, but also hints of some very nice red fruit. On the palate some dark plum, cherry and strawberry. Hints of coffee and refined tannin. Not overly complex, but a lovely elegant port that's drinking extremely w...

Impressive dark and youthful looking. Dark fruit, rose petal and typical Graham spirity character on the nose. To taste round and full. Packed with fruit, lively and complex. A powerhouse that will improve for many years to come. Great effort from Graham, only reason it didn't make my top 3 is that ...

Dark ruby colour, quite impressive. Very expressive, lively nose. Violets, dark cherries, all not overpowering but intense in its persistence. Packed with flavours: dark fruit, coffee, bay leaf and beautifully integrated fine tannins. Long finish. Very youthful still and incredibly impressive. Head ...

Lovely garnet colour with a youthful ruby core. Still some fresh fruit on the nose, red cherry and plum, but overall rather stringent: a bit dusty and hard. Quite firm on the palate, with red fruit, cherry syrup, linear with dry tannins. More youthful than previous examples I tasted of this and very...

It was indeed a very enjoyable evening with some great company and lovely ports. I'll post some notes when I'm back on a device on which it's a bit easier to type (ie not an ipop). Thanks all for putting together a great evening with a stellar lineup of ports!

RAYC wrote:THRA is in and has declared Graham.

If felt necessary, this would be a nice occasion for me to bring the RO Carvahlas (gifted to me last year very generously by THRA) to taste alongside the regular RO.

Very good, this is beginning to look like a proper tasting.

This used to be available in organic shops in Holland (and maybe still is, I don't know), so I bought it once or twice. I was never really keen on it though, thought it was overly sharp and lacking in pretty much everything else.

Christopher wrote:Please count me in, I can bring a Fonseca 70.

Excellent! I'll amend the first post.

jdaw1 wrote:First draft of the placemats.

• Executive decisions have been made about what AHB and RAYC are bringing, and what DRT is adopting from me. Please verify or correct.

Did you incorporate the fact that I'm left-handed into the placemats?

AHB wrote:I'm glad to hear that it lived up to all the praise I gave it and that it was enjoyed by all.

And thanks again for the decanting advice.

I would think that both the Symingtons and TFP have enough top class vineyards, knowledge, capacity etc. to produce vintage quality juice if the conditions are right. So Derek's argument makes more sense (and is actually not as boring as Andy suggests). In the end it does come down to a question of ...

And it was excellent indeed. We drank it at D+3. It did gain some weight, but more in flavour than body. Benchmark Warre elegance, showing a bit more strawberry and even some cherry notes than at D+0, but otherwise very similar. Fully mature, but I don't see it going down anytime soon. Loved and tho...

Just decanted for drinking later tonight and had to have a taste because the aromas coming out of the decanter were too good to pass. Very light, nutty colour. Wonderfully elegant, with a deceiving lightness, but oh so complex. Dried citrus, nutty (notably almonds), raisin, but also hints of fig and...

so it may just be that the Symingtons got more of the right grapes in at the right time than Taylor Fladgate I'm sure that will be the Symington line - and it's not hard to imagine what the TFP would say in reply.. ..methinks this is the start of a debate that will run for fifty years! Given that t...

What I find interesting is that the Symington press release speaks of big wines that will age for a long time (at least that's what they say for the Dow Ribeira), and TFP did not declare because of lack of tannin structure. How can this be? Looking forward to seeing some tasting notes on the declare...

Received an e-mail from AHB telling me that the Taylor 1970 has arrived and looks fine. That's good news!

DRT wrote:My overall impression of Delaforce is that the wines of the 1960s are very good, whilst those from the 1970s and 1980s are variable but mostly weak or bad examples of VP

Derek, how was the 1977? We had it at a 1977 horizontal in 2008 where it was one of the positive surprises of the evening.

g-man wrote:what would cause a bottle to have a capsule and a selo, but no cork?

Could it be that something just went wrong at the bottling line? That's the only thing I can think of. Very weird though, not something I've ever seen, or ever hope to see.