Monday 8 November - Oscar visits; Jacob's Revenge

[RAYC]

A successful evening, with not one bad/off port in the whole bunch. Using what seems, on reflection, the slightly odd scoring system of 3 points for first pick and 2 points for runner up, the ports tasted and results of WOTN voting were as follows:

Croft 1985 (WOTN, 1 first and 4 seconds, provided by Oscar)
Warre 1963 (2nd equal, three firsts, provided by uncle tom)
Churchill 1982 (2nd equal, three firsts, provided by Wolfgang)
Croft Roeda 1967 (three seconds, provided by my brother Mike)
Croft Roeda 1983 (one first, provided by Ben)
Morgan 1977 (provided by Jacob)
Taylor 10yr Tawny (bottled 1979)(provided by Caroline)
Niepoort 1970 (provided by Rob)
Qta do Passadouro 1997 (provided as spare by Rob)

I will figure out how to create links when I get a bit more time if some kind soul has not already done so by then.

Guesses at ports were encouraged but not mandatory, with one point for correct identification of vintage and one point for correct identification of shipper. The grand totals were (ahem):

uncle tom: 4 points
Rob: 2 points
Ben: 1 point
Everyone else: no points!

Cheers,

Rob

-- And good luck to Ben this coming weekend!

[Alex Bridgeman]

Good to hear you had fun. Sorry I wasn't able to make it - and a fine line-up of wines you had too!

Were you lucky enough to have had a bottle of Croft 1985 without any VA?

[JacobH]

I really enjoyed Monday. It was great to see Oscar again and the service at the Crusting Pipe was as excellent as always. Thank you to everyone for bringing such a great selection of Ports.

Were you lucky enough to have had a bottle of Croft 1985 without any VA?

Yes Indeed, this was the first tasting I can remember where we didn't have a single flawed bottle and all the Ports were showing well.

Ignoring the consensus, the wine of the night by miles and miles was the Churchill 1982 and Wolfgang is entirely correct that can get a good bottle of this it is excellent.

The Quinta da Roeda 1967 was the biggest surprise. An excellent wine, which I think would stand up favourably with the best of the vintage. I'd like to try it against the Croft 1966.

As always, I am completely terrified by Uncle Tom's blind tasting abilities; in addition to his 4 points, guessed the 1979 10-year-old Fonseca as a 30-year-old 20-year-old tawny...

[oscar quevedo]

It was a great evening, I'm happy to see that the Port Wine lovers from the UK are in pretty good shape!

It was a shame you couldn't make it Alex, but we know we can't always have everybody...

[DRT]

As always, I am completely terrified by Uncle Tom's blind tasting abilities

Just like an ability to play dominos, darts or snooker, this is just a sign of a mis-spent youth

[JacobH]

uncle tom: 4 points
Rob: 2 points
Ben: 1 point
Everyone else: no points!

On reviewing my tasting notes for the evening, I notice I wrote "Martinez 1963" down for the Warre 1963. I hereby award myself 1 point!

I am also beginning to add tasting notes as follows:

Planning
General ramblings about the evening
Tasting Notes
Croft 1985
Warre 1963
Churchill 1982
Croft Quinta da Roeda 1967
Croft Quinta da Roeda 1983
Morgan 1977
Fonseca 10-year-old Tawny (bottled 1979)
Niepoort 1970
Quinta do Passadouro 1997

[benread]

I managed to take no notes and cannot remember exactly which wine I preferred. What I do remember, which echoes an earlier ocmment, is how good they all were. I remain slightly miffed at being denied two points for knowing the Fonseca 10YO but Jacob says it was unfair as I had a bottle from the same supply!

It was great to say hello to Oscar again, and nice that we are able to welcome people at our low key events as well as some of the higher profile tastings we lay on.

Thank you Rob for organising.

[WS1]

It was indeed a great evening out. All ports showed well and I was particularily impressed by Croft 1985 (having had no VA). Despite I preferred the Warre 1963 this excellent for this year; for me the wine of the vintage; Johny Grahams Debut port with Churchill is really something special if not VA contaminated. The Niepoort 1970 (takll bt) was good but not as good as it can be. This port is heavily affected by storage. A perfect stored bt consumed the following Friday was nearly as good as the preferred dumpy bottling (pota). I did on the evening the Dow 1985 injustice not remembering it from the Dow vertical. This is a very good port indeed and i should become less sidetracked by older port going forward
I am glad Oscar enjoyed out offline and hope when he is again in London we can do another one

regards

WS1