Thursday 11th April - Decanting Experiment plus some drinkers

[hadge]

After some crazy planning and 2 trips to the Boot & Flogger, to deliver bottles and then more bottles and decanters, somehow I got them there all safely.

There was a little Julian and Harry debate on which bottles to open and which decanters, Martin was the peacekeeper. The poor placemats didn’t know what to do! I wanted to open 2 Tappit Hens of Dow 1977 and Julian only one, is the only comment I will make!

A quick decanting comment, each bottle was decanted through a fresh the unbleached muslin cloth from Nisbets and the same plastic funnel for each decanter.

We started by opening the Warre 1947 because Julian was thirsty.

Then we started with the opening of the timed decanting bottles,

Dow 1977 Tappit Hen, decanted at 1pm. into Sandeman Tawny bottle, an general everyday decanter and a ships decanter. No stoppers where placed on these throughout the day.

First tasting at 3pm, 2 hours in the decanters, Tawny Bottle first, get some heat, lacks smoothness, Straight, get a some heat, lacks smoothness, Ships, a little less heat, lacks smoothness, under decanted port for me. a little blind on this round, I guessed the Tawny and Straight the wrong away around, table view is the most heat in the straight which I agree with after the blind.

Second tasting at 4:30pm, 3h 30m in, I shortened from the 2 hour break because I felt there was less heat and imbalance after 2 hours than expected for me. there was a touch of heat on the tawny bottle, the straight was lovely, balance was there, and the ships, was lovely, with great balance, this is has really opened up. Comment, I feel the tawny was only 20 to 30mins behind the ships at this point.

Third tasting at 7pm, 6 hours in, this tasting was delayed from 6pm to 7pm for the late comers to join the final round. All 3 where in the lovely place, with great balance, smooth finish, just a touch less vibrancy than the previous round for me.

Warre 1977 Tappit Hen, decanted at 1:30pm into Sandeman Tawny and a straight Magnum decanter. The stopper were placed when not being poured.

First tasting at 2pm, 30mins in the decanters, only magnum decanter tasted, heat, but lovely fruit, lack of balance on the finish.

Second tasting 4pm, 2:30mins in, magnum decanter, still heat, needs time, tawny bottle, little heat, smoother finish, starting to balance, lovely port in there.

Third tasting 5pm, 3:30mins in, Magnum decanter, just wow! Great balance, lovely elegance finish, classic Warre at is best. Tawny bottle, not as good, balance is there but not as elegant as the magnum, still lovely.
Fourth tasting 6:30pm, 5 hours in, magnum decanter, this is just starting to get a little tired from it peak for me, but still very good to great.

Dow 1977 Magnum, decanted at 5pm for the evening joiners, into Sandeman Tawny bottle and Ships decanter, no stoppers were placed on these. This was to try and recreated the Tappit hen experience for the evening joiners.

Tasted at 7:30pm, Tawny bottle, show a little heat, very close to being ready. Ships, was lovely, with good balance, very enjoyable.

Overall. My view is, there was a some difference between the Tawny and Ships, but this difference was around 20 to 30mins in 4 hours, therefore around 8 to 12.5% difference over time, which is much smaller than I expected.

[hadge]

General Bottles for some fun drinking as we go

Warre 1947, This was a low shoulder bottle, but very enjoyable, didn’t take long to open up. It had that classic Warre elegance, with lovely balance. Started to go over a little after 3 hours for me. got 2 HM’s.

Buttler Nephew 1947, opened at 1:30pm, enjoyable but not great, thought by all to be a good bottle but just too old now, just a little tired. The Warre was better.

Gould Cambell 1977 Magnum, 2:00pm decanted into a magnum decanter. This did take some time to open up, around hour an 1 hour and half to 2 hours, what a wonderful port, great balance, lovely smooth finish, I believe the first bottle finished. I think that because it was finished so early in the day, we forgot about it when there was HMs.

Taylor 1966, opened at 2:30pm, this was on the lighter side than expected. No faults that we could detected. I really enjoyed it. Had good balance, started with a little heat but really opened up over 2 hours. Tom A thought that the barrel hadn’t been rolled before bottling at that this one had come of the top. It got 2 HM’s,

Croft 1955, opened at 5:45pm, this was a great bottle, wonderful colour, great balance, lovely long finish, got 3 HM’s

Noval 1955 this was a very very low shoulder bottle, this was ok, starting to go over to tawny style but no faults and perfectly drinkable. Weakest bottle of the day. Didn’t top up my glass.

Portal Grand Reserva 2007 Double Magnum, at 5:30pm, this was opened as we need some extra wine to keep us going until the late comers arrived. I was surprised by how enjoyable this was, a very good wine, easy drinking, not going to set the world on fire but still a joy.

Ian’s Bonus bottles at the end when everything else had been finished.

Smith Woodhouse 1985, an interesting port, no faults, just lacks something. Not sure if it was just following a very enjoyable lineup all day, and a step to far for it. The only glass I didn’t finish I believe.

Ramos Pinto 1970, there is a story about this bottle, which I will ask Ian to file everyone in on. I could not find a fault with this bottle, a wonderful bottle and very enjoyable.

overall we had some very fun bottles to drink throughout, we no major faults. the tappit hens were great, but the big surprise was how good the Portal red was, a real enjoy. this has years to go if wanted but good now. Portuguese reds just need time and more time.

[hadge]

Voting

D77 TH, this was spilt 4 who thought that the decanter made no overall difference, and 3 who prefer the ships decanter. time wise, 1 for 2hours, 2 for 3:30 hours, 4 for longest time.

W77 TH, magnum decanter was the favourite, all but one preferring the longest decant time

D77 Magnum, the ships was the favourite, was finished before timed tastings could be completed.

[Glenn E.]

Gould Cambell 1977 Magnum, 2:00pm decanted into a magnum decanter. This did take some time to open up, around hour an 1 hour and half to 2 hours, what a wonderful port, great balance, lovely smooth finish, I believe the first bottle finished. I think that because it was finished so early in the day, we forgot about it when there was HMs.

This really is a wonderful Port from magnum. I think I still have 8 left. I want to do a head-to-head comparison some time of bottle vs magnum.

Smith Woodhouse 1985, an interesting port, no faults, just lacks something. Not sure if it was just following a very enjoyable lineup all day, and a step to far for it. The only glass I didn’t finish I believe.

We also just had this Port recently and our experience was similar. There was just something... missing. Our bottle also seemed to be starting downhill after the peak, and given that we open these fairly frequently I suspect this is entering the "drink up" phase.

I'll be opening another one this weekend just to double check our recent experience.

[jdaw1]

I went into this tasting dissmissing my friend’s silly hypothesis. because the act of decanting so mixes air into the liquid, I was confident that the extent of surface area — ship’s versus straight sided — would make no approximately difference.

Overall. My view is, there was a some difference between the Tawny and Ships, but this difference was around 20 to 30mins in 4 hours, therefore around 8 to 12.5% difference over time, which is much smaller than I expected.

For me, the difference was around 20 to 30mins in 4 hours, therefore around 8% to 12.5%, which was much larger than I expected.

A score draw.

[idj123]

I was one of the two evening attendees (Ben being the other) to whom Harry refers, above. Arrived to find all in good spirits, although some perhaps having a warmer alcoholic glow than others! Given the late arrival, difficult to pass too much judgment on the experiment, although I did marginally prefer the ship’s as I recall. However, my big takeaway was that that both D and W (as well as what remained of GC) need to be experienced in larger format (the D and GC being the best of these juice that I have tasted). The Quinta do Portal 2007 from DM was also absolutely superb. Big chapeau to Harry for his organising and extreme generosity.

Quick word on the two Ports that I brought with me. Yes, I agree that the SW85 seemed surprisingly flat and faded. I had assumed that this was the result of additional oxidisation from a slightly leaky bottle-but maybe not. The RP70 I had double decanted the previous weekend but was sure that it was corked (it certainly appeared faulty) but having put in the fridge and coming back to it some days later, all seemed fine and it tasted as I would have expected (very good). Its recovery confused me somewhat and so I brought the bottle with me for second opinions but all present agreed that it was a good bottle with no fault remaining. Interesting…