25 May 2010, somewhere north of Henley, a blind tasting

[Alex Bridgeman]

On 25th May, work caused me to be in the northern suburbs of Henley Upon Thames and Derek kindly agreed to meet up and share some port. In total, 5 of us met at Rowley's Restaurant in Baslow and enjoyed a thoroughly nice evening with great service (thanks Abbey!) good food and some interesting learnings from the 8 ports we tasted.

We worked our way through 2 pairs and 4 single wines, all served blind. The singles being a totally light destroyed Graham 1963 (very disappointing), an impressively dense and promising bottle of Vargellas 1996, a Martinez 1985 which delivered what Martinez always delivers when you decant it for long enough and a Taylor 1955 which was a little below par but was terrific value for money when we found out how little it had cost!

The pairs were presented for comparison. The first pair was of two wines from the same shipper and consecutive vintages. The first of the two wines was dark, brooding, silky but still so massive and tannic and with terrific complexity. A wine for the long haul. The second wine was a lovely deep rose colour, which I usually associate with early maturity; sweet and with plenty of candied fruit but fully resolved tannins. A lovely wine, but much more elegant and a little simpler than the first of the pair - a wine to enjoy over the next 10-20 years. These two wines were Fonseca Guimaraens 1976 and Fonseca 1977!

The second pair was tasted from black glasses so there was no clue as to the wines' nature. The question was "What is the connection between these two wines?". The first wine was sweet on the nose and the palate with descriptions ranging from strawberry jam through to bubble gum. Still with some tannins but rather simple and straightforward, some liked the style and some didn't. The second wine had VA all over the nose (to me, anyway, although others didn't seem to detect it to anything like the same degree as I did) and reminded me very much of a bual or sercial madeira. One person, whose embarrasment I shall save by leaving him (or her) nameless, described the nose as "raw and unintegrated ruby". This wine was full of herbs, soft brown sugar and I picked up gooseberries on the palate and on the very long aftertaste. The connection between these two wines was that they were made by the same house, exactly 100 years apart - they were Ferreira 1963 and Ferreira 1863.

Overall a terrific evening and a venue that I would happily use again next time I have to visit Henley Upon Thames. Thanks for the company chaps, and from saving me from a boring evening on my own.

[DRT]

It was a great evening indeed, especially the bits that I can remember clearly

A big thanks to Alex for his outstanding generosity in allowing us to share his pair of Ferreiras - a very interesting experiment and I am proud to say that I was the only one who was able to detect that Ferreira 1863 smells exactly the same as cheap ruby

Thanks also to Richard Mayson for suggesting and organising the venue, which was an excellent place to hold a port tasting, and for sharing the Fonseca Guimaraens 76 and Fonseca 77 with us. This was a remarkable comparison. The 77 did not show any more maturity than other bottles of this that I have tasted so was a good benchmark against which to judge the 76 Guimaraens, which could easily be mistaken for a wine half its age.

The Graham's 63 was shot to pieces - probably cooked at some point in the distant past. Suffice to say it looked, smelled and tasted more like a 40 year old Hutcheson than anything with the name Graham on it. I think Ray should write a strongly worded letter of complaint to that dodgy wine merchant he sourced it from

If I ever find my tasting notes I will post them.

Derek

[Deleted_User_1]

It was indeed a very special evening drinking some classy wines in such esteemed company. .Good company at a very good venue.

This blind tatsting was only marred by my contribution being shot to pieces..a G63 sourced from a very good source (normally).

The highlight of the evening had to be tasting two wines served in black glasses.

Generally to discuss the merits of two wines connected by simply being 100 years apart would make for an interesting conversation...but to actually be there to taste a Ferreira 1863 and a 1963 at the same time was indeed a great honour for which I am very grateful to Alex B for that...there cannot be that many people on the planet that can say they have done this!

The question was 'what connects the two wines?...My original answer was that they were both cask samples as the initial burst of fruits to me was that of an extremely young wine...what do I know.

I believe after seeing the wines I did pick the fact that they were 100 years apart but confess it was a 'tongue in cheek' remark that, despite Alex confirming, I was not sure he wasn't kidding.

I have comiled a stiff letter (using cardboard) to my supplier of the G63 which I was promised would be 'superb' Doh!!

Thanks again to all who attended and especially to Richard Mayson for signing a copy of his book for me.

PS. As an aside we all tried a Muscat supplied by Alex K and I have to confess did not like very much but have to say back at the hotel with nothing else to drink...it was all of a sudden ...lovely!!

[KillerB]

Thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thanks to Richard for the stunning combination of 1976 FG and 1977 Fonseca. I think that Fonseca 1977 is a lovely Port but a little over-rated, it was probably the best Port for drinking now. Pairing with the 1976 proved this point without any doubt as the supposedly second wine showed it up in a very big style - wine of the night without even trying and not having had any decanting time, many years left in it.

The other great pairing from Al B was also a delight. I have to say that I didn't like the 1863 Ferreira on tasting, it was past its sell-by date but was still alive enough to be drinkable and enjoyable for what it was. The 1963 was a good Port but the pairing was inspired.

The Martinez 1985 was decanted in exactly the right time and showed up as lovely as ever - joint current drinker but considerably cheaper than the F77. The Vargellas 1996 was a young brute and shows great promise. The Graham's 1963 was shot to pieces and ploughed a very sad and lonely furrow. The Taylor 1955 was not the best example but still very enjoyable.

Company was excellent and great to meet Richard who was an extremely nice guy and great company.