Zelandakh Visits NYC 28 Oct 2011

[SushiNorth]

Placeholder for tonight's tasting

[g-man]

Fantastic meeting Nick/sig fig and his brother tonight along with Mr. Doty + 1, Different Dave and Sushi + 1.

Hopefully my fellow forum members enjoyed the meal as much as me!

notes to be posted when sober but WOTN for me was the Smith Woodhouse 77 followed by Warres 77 and Dows 77 (of which this was a second bottled opened ont he same day!)

[Chris Doty]

Cracking night, chaps. A few summary observations/comments:

Venue
Northsquare put on a first rate show, with an intimate private room, great food (especially the filet), and great service. I will seek to conduct all my future wine tasting events here. Great find!

Vintage
Based on the performance of these particular wines, it would be reasonable to conclude that the 1977 vintage is solid, if not spectacular, but also likely at or very near its peak, with only one wine (SW77) demonstrating a capacity for extended cellaring. Most of the wines were still highly enjoyable (including my first non-corked bottle of the D77, which felt like some sort of strange personal achievement), the only problem was they tended to fade over time. As was the case with my prior bottle, the Sandeman 77 did improve with time in the glass, but is too fragile and feminine a wine to stand up to another 10+ years in a cave, I suspect.

Players
Excellent cross-section of participants, I thought. Nick is a first rate character, and it was really a treat to learn more about the 'port pipe.' His wife Lorna (spelling?) gets my vote for 'taster of the evening' as she had the strength to oppose the loud cries to declare the SW77 the unanimous WOTN, to which she accurately replied that it was too strong and spirity for her taste, preferring instead the Sandeman, Warre, 82 Taylor LBV, and the Mystery bottle, all of which she believed to be more feminine and poised. Nick's brother Mike is a funny guy, and pairing him next to Different Dave made for a very entertaining little comedy act. Lastly, while he only said about 5 words, Jeff's friend Dominick proved himself to be the smartest person at the dinner. The only issue with the venue is that our table was longer and narrower than I would have liked, so that's about as far down the table as I was able to make it in terms of conversation (probably in the best interests of those parties situated on the opposite end!)

Closing thoughts
The Fonseca, Taylor, and Smith Woodhouse are likely the only 77s you need in your cellar. Of course, I've had success with the likes of Gould Campbell, Sandeman, Warre, and others -- they're just not going to stay in the game for much longer, I fear. In a way, this is what makes both 70/63 look amazing, but also makes us appreciate the last ~20 years of vintage port production, where the wines typically are more consistent and ageworthy.

Great night!

[g-man]

TN posted

77 Sandeman

77 Dows

77 Warres

Smith Woodhouse LBV 84

Taylor LBV 82

77 Quinta Cachao

77 Smith Woodhouse

77 Delaforce

[SushiNorth]

This was a very enjoyable and educational evening at North Square. It was great to meet our UK guests, as well as his US brother (esp for some of his tasting note comments), and the port was good fun.

WoTN:
SW77 4x1, 1x3, 1x2
Dow77 2x1, 2x2, 2x3
W77: 1x1, 4x2, 2x3
S77: 1x1, 1x3
T82LBV: 1x2, 1x3.
Cachao also earned one 4.

Clear winner was the Smith Woodhouse 77 VP, though we were all rooting for the surprisingly good Dow (the second bottle opened, the first had the usual D77 issues). In the end, SW improved over the course of the evening, and D sank, which several of us noted during our notes.

I do want to thank Zelandakh for his gifts -- a long stemmed can't-put-it-down port pipe and a pair of smaller footed ones, all made by his father. The long-stemmed one was christened with SW77. They'll be put to good use as soon as I can sit down long enough to open a bottle here at home.

I agree with an earlier comment that the table was somehow too long. Chris and I were at opposite ends, which will be fixed by the next tasting The private room, however, made the evening much more festive.