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On Thursday 21^st April 2016, the night before The Big Fortified Tasting, at the Boot & Flogger, we met for a double-vertical, Dow versus Graham.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1960 Dow, 1960 Graham;
• 1963 Dow, 1963 Graham;
• 1970 Dow, 1970 Graham;
• 1980 Dow, 1980 Graham;
• 1983 Dow, 1983 Graham;
• 1985 Dow, 1985 Graham;
• Food order;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

Dow 1980 and Graham 1963 both decanted at 05.30 today.

1980 Graham decanted 09:45. Nose not quite perfect — but there is some time yet.

1970 Dow decanted 09:50, and all in good order.

Another wonderful pre-BFT tasting. Thanks to Alex for getting everything organised We had the added delight to have Chris, Oscar Quevedo and David Kennard join us for dinner and port. More about David here. Oscar needs no further introduction.

Turning to the port, I was really looking forward to comparing Dow and Graham. I was not surprised to find I favoured Graham over Dow. I was surprised to see that many others also favoured Graham. I think overall, it simply turned out that the Dow we tasted were not on best form. For each Dow vintage tasted, I recall tasting better examples in the not distant past.

The G60 was my WOTN - a belter. Special mention for the G85 which was really one of the best bottles of this I have tasted.

One of those is looking rather pale

Andy Velebil wrote:One of those is looking rather pale

That would be Oscar’s 30Y Branco.

jdaw1 wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:One of those is looking rather pale

That would be Oscar’s 30Y Branco.

Which has not yet been added to the links in the opening post

DRT wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:One of those is looking rather pale

That would be Oscar’s 30Y Branco.

Which has not yet been added to the links in the opening post

In that case, looks just as it should

This was a lovely warm up for the BFT the following day and it good to have the company of both Oscar and Chris again and also to meet and hear from David. The B&F staff were also on top form with regards both the food and service.

In terms of the Ports, although Mike indicates (correctly) that the Graham won out in the match-up, to my mind, the 60, 80 and 83 were all close and could have gone either way and with the flawed G63 being cancelled out by a flawed D70, that really just leaves the G85 as a clear winner on level terms (and Mike is right that was a particularly good G85). My WOTN was the D63 and interesting that the G70 garnered most people's vote even though we've drunk better examples. I must admit that I like this match-up approach and is one we should repeat.

idj123 wrote:I must admit that I like this match-up approach and is one we should repeat.

Me too. Possible future matchings:

• Fonseca and Taylor;
• Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse;
• Croft and Warre;
• Niepoort and Noval.

flash_uk wrote:

idj123 wrote:I must admit that I like this match-up approach and is one we should repeat.

Me too.

Me too.

Thank you. An excellent eventing, good company, and very informative.

It seems, on analysis, that I like both Dow and Graham and wines both older and younger. My conclusion is I like port. Phew. In the right place then. I was glad I thought the 1980s performed well - I need to get more of these I think.

I also very much enjoyed the dual vertical format. It added extra complexity, but was very informative. I will make an effort to understand my tasting notes and write them up properly this time. I already know that the wine I liked most I wrote least about - too busy enjoying drinking it I suppose.

An enjoyable evening with another head-to-head of two houses (I like this approach), and a number of guests joining us. It was Interesting to meet and hear from David Kennard regarding his upcoming film, and I look forward to some form of TPF involvement on the opening night. Great to see Oscar again, as well as Chris from Sogrape.

Oscar brought a sample of the 2014 VP which I understand they are not likely to declare, but will probably bottle a small quantity for own stock only; I was suprised by how approachable this seemed currently, with soft and gentle fruit, quite tasty.

On many evenings where we have both older and younger ports, the left-hand page (older) tends to dominate the voting; while it still took just over half the points available on this evening, this was a marked difference to many other nights, but was perhaps due to the unusual number of faults present - sadly the D63, G63 and D70 were all faulty. The D63 fault was minor causing a poor showing, though still crushing the G63 which was very wrong. The D70 was frustrating because it was absolutely lovely port with a funky edge/aftertaste - it showed the greatness it could have been. The other older ports were all lovely, particularly the G70. On the younger page all the ports seemed to be in excellent condition, and it was the best showing of the '85s that I have tasted, particularly the G85 which was my WOTN.

Thanks to Alex (and others) for organising a very enjoyable evening in excellent company.

Note to self: somebody grumbled that the placemats were slow to print.

My TNs include a “30Y branco”, of which palate I noted: Light; long; apricot; delicate and delicious. Lovely, but lighter than my preference.