Port and literature

Anything to do with Port.
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AW77
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Re: Port and literature

Post by AW77 »

LGTrotter wrote: I wondered if you were out there, tried any 1540 Steinwien tonight?
No, but a 2009 Gewürztraminer Auslese with desert. I was surprised that Gewürztraminer gets dryer with age, too.
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
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djewesbury
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Re: Port and literature

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AW77 wrote:
LGTrotter wrote: I wondered if you were out there, tried any 1540 Steinwien tonight?
No, but a 2009 Gewürztraminer Auslese with desert. I was surprised that Gewürztraminer gets dryer with age, too.
Just like Owen :)
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LGTrotter
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Re: Port and literature

Post by LGTrotter »

AW77 wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:Liebnitz
Leibniz
'Let's call the whole thing off', or as one DJewesbury put it 'let's fall asleep on a bench'. ('Bench' in the search box will find the reference.)
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djewesbury
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Re: Port and literature

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I'm keeping your seat warm.
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LGTrotter
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Re: Port and literature

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djewesbury wrote:I'm keeping your seat warm.
I feel all Charles Hawtree...
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Re: Port and literature

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More from Ms Sayers. Nine Tailors. Having already had a bottle of claret with his lunch, Peter Wimsey has opened a bottle of Tuke Holdsworth 08 (the same vintage that the Rector remarks 'couldn't hurt a fly' at the beginning of the book, which Owen noted elsewhere).
' "This is very excellent port. Be good enough to finish the bottle, Bunter, because it would be a pity to waste it and if I have any more I shall be too sleepy to drive." '
This is in a book where he's already managed to drive his Daimler into a ditch...
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djewesbury
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Re: Port and literature

Post by djewesbury »

Interesting crossover from Port and Literature to Port and Art. I think the famous C19th painter Henry Scott Tuke, best known for his paintings of young boys swimming and boating, was of the family of port shippers. I forget where I read this. I'll research it again.
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AW77
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Re: Port and literature

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The third (I think) reference to port in Graham Greene.
In his novel "It's a Battlefield" (in the 2002 Vintage paperback on page 35) he writes:
"... Suddenly through the stillness, like the ghost of old dinners, he heard a nut crack. He stayed very still, half expecting to smell the bouquet of port, to hear the clink of a glass, but there was a silence..."
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
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Re: Port and literature

Post by LGTrotter »

I think there is a passing reference to port in what is undoubtably his most exquisite work 'The end of the affair'.
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Re: Port and literature

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In "A spy among friends", Nicholas Elliott, after gaining employment in some clandestine section of the Foreign Office, underwent induction training comprising of the following sage advice:

"After dinner, Sir Nevile [Bland] offered him a warning: 'in the diplomatic service it is a sackable offence to sleep with the wife of a colleague' - and some advice: 'I suggest you do as I do and not light your cigar until you have started your third glass of port.'"
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Re: Port and literature

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PopulusTremula wrote:In "A spy among friends", Nicholas Elliott, after gaining employment in some clandestine section of the Foreign Office, underwent induction training comprising of the following sage advice:

"After dinner, Sir Nevile [Bland] offered him a warning: 'in the diplomatic service it is a sackable offence to sleep with the wife of a colleague' - and some advice: 'I suggest you do as I do and not light your cigar until you have started your third glass of port.'"
If John Terry had read that book perhaps England would have done better in the World Cup.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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Re: Port and literature

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PopulusTremula wrote:In "A spy among friends", Nicholas Elliott, after gaining employment in some clandestine section of the Foreign Office, underwent induction training comprising of the following sage advice:

"After dinner, Sir Nevile [Bland] offered him a warning: 'in the diplomatic service it is a sackable offence to sleep with the wife of a colleague' - and some advice: 'I suggest you do as I do and not light your cigar until you have started your third glass of port.'"
Looked this up and on the basis of a few reviews I have ordered a copy. An interesting locus of history.
Last edited by LGTrotter on 23:00 Wed 23 Jul 2014, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Port and literature

Post by PopulusTremula »

LGTrotter wrote:
PopulusTremula wrote:In "A spy among friends", Nicholas Elliott, after gaining employment in some clandestine section of the Foreign Office, underwent induction training comprising of the following sage advice:

"After dinner, Sir Nevile [Bland] offered him a warning: 'in the diplomatic service it is a sackable offence to sleep with the wife of a colleague' - and some advice: 'I suggest you do as I do and not light your cigar until you have started your third glass of port.'"
Looked this up and on the basis of a few reviews have ordered a copy. A interesting locus of history.
I enjoyed it. Well written and gripping, easy reading rather than peer reviewed history journal.
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Re: Port and literature

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PopulusTremula wrote:I enjoyed it. Well written and gripping, easy reading rather than peer reviewed history journal.
Me too, especially the John le Carre bit at the end.
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Re: Port and literature

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I was trying to remember the lovely line about being 'fuddled with port' from Evelyn Waugh's Scoop. In the end I googled it to find reference to it from an earlier source and very pleasing it is too. First the Waugh quote;

"William sat in a happy stupor. He had never wanted to go to Ishmaelia, or, for that matter to any foreign country, to earn £50 a week or own a jointed flagstaff or a camp operating table; but when he told Mr Salter that he wanted nothing except to live at home and keep his job, he had hidden the remote and secret ambition of fifteen years or more. He did, very deeply want to go up in an aeroplane. It was a wish so far from the probabilities of life at Boot Magna that William never spoke of it; very rarely consciously considered it. No one at home knew of it except Nannie Bloggs. She had promised him a flight if she won the Irish Sweepstake, but after several successive failures she decided that the whole thing was a popish trick and refused to take further tickets, and with her decision William’s chances seemed to fade beyond the ultimate horizon. But still it haunted his dreams and returned to him, more vividly in the minutes of transition between sleep and wakefulness, on occasions of physical exhaustion and inner content, hacking home in the twilight after a good day’s hunt, fuddled with port on the not infrequent birthdays of the Boot household."

The next from 'The Golden age' Thursday September 26th 1861;

Major Montresor’s dream; The Major, a good practical unfilligreed Christian, one day at Oxford, having been much fuddled with port and polemics, fell asleep after dinner and found himself in an immense crowd pressing on towards the gates of heaven.'

It goes on to tell the tale, here is the link; http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/30631709

I just love the turn of phrase 'fuddled with port' so expressive of the joys of having a glass or three.
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djewesbury
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Re: Port and literature

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Very lovely. Thank you. The Scoop quote is quite beautiful.
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AW77
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Re: Port and literature

Post by AW77 »

I found a possible reference to Port in Compton Mackenzie's "The Monarch of the Glen":
"But this was the kind of talk which suited a dying fire and an empty decanter." (p. 21)
This must surely be a decanter of port.
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
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AW77
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Re: Port and literature

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I found a definite reference to Port in Compton Mackenzie's "The Monarch of the Glen":
"Yes, you've already made that clear," Lord Buntingdon interrupted. "Fill up your glass, Mr Prew," he added, pushing the decanter of port towards his guest. "Thank you, no, Lord Buntingdon. I find that more than one glass of port tends to aggravate my rheumatism." (p. 166)
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
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Re: Port and literature

Post by LGTrotter »

Rheumatism? I wonder if this was a euphamism for gout? And surely two glasses couldn't hurt, not if they are small ones?
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Re: Port and literature

Post by LGTrotter »

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This book has a small but excellent piece on port. Bought at Yarcombe terrier races (this features high in the local calendar). I shall try to post more when sober.
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Re: Port and literature

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LGTrotter wrote: I shall try to post more when sober.
I couldn't wait that long, perhaps I should post this among Julian's auction catalogues but I felt that the contents of Dickens' cellar deserved to be in the literature thread. Lots or madeira; good. Magnums of port; better. Plenty of cider; huzzah!
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LGTrotter
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Re: Port and literature

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Even Glenn could have had a glass of port he liked, the Cockburn which had been in cask for 22 years, for instance. No indication of a bottling or vintage though. Must have dragged the price down.
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Re: Port and literature

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Just realised the cellar list goes on over the page.
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Re: Port and literature

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Please post more about the secondary source.
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Re: Port and literature

Post by LGTrotter »

jdaw1 wrote:Please post more about the secondary source.
My information is limited to the book itself. Already ably reviewed on 'Books about Port' site, it is written by the great grandson of the original Dickens. It is slimmish and from a cursory read it has thrown up a number of nuggets. One being the précis of the Gads Hill auction catalogue sold after the death of Dickens which I have posted. There are the usual series of still blindingly marvellous quotes, alongside rather more modern observations by a rather less talented Dickens. He does however have his merits, a solid recipe for negus and smoking bishop are always welcome. He also has some interesting connections and stories, but I doubt they would scintillate most readers. Published in 1980 it has the feel of something from the fifties, or even the thirties. And there is a chapter entitled "The great port controversy"; is that not enough?
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