A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011

[jdaw1]

Review and tasting-note threads created.

• Review of the events as a whole;
• 30Y Fonseca tawny;
• 1933 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1942 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1955 Fonseca;
• 1957 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1960 Fonseca;
• 1961 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1964 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1965 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1966 Fonseca;
• 1967 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1968 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1970 Fonseca;
• 1972 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1976 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1978 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1982 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1984 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1985 Fonseca;
• 1986 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1987 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1988 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1991 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1992 Fonseca;
• 1995 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1996 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal;
• 1998 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 2000 Fonseca;
• 2001 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 2004 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• 2005 Fonseca Guimaraens;
• Planning and arrangements;
• Placemats.

(These links were posted two posts ago, but are now at the start of this new page.)

[DRT]

IMPORTANT

1. The tasting will commence at 18:30 and we have lots to get through so please, if at all possible, do not be late.” 

2. Could those who have volunteered to help with glass-washing duty please report to Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman at 2pm at The RAF Club. Those who have volunteered will receive an email confirming arrangements shortly.

3. Could all others please note that we now have more than enough hands to cope with the preparations so please arrive no earlier than 18:00 and no later than 18:25. If you do arrive early there is a waiting room just around the corner, opposite the Hard Rock Cafe, which serves a delightful range of pre-tasting refreshments.

”  AHB has handed in a note from his Mum asking for special dispensation to be late as he has forgotten his gym kit and needs to collect it from his Gran's house in Milton Keynes after school.

[Axel P]

Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman

The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...

Axel

[DRT]

Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman

The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...

Axel

Clearly there is a problem with the slowness of Luftwaffe intelligence

[jdaw1]

Would people be terribly upset if I were to donate a bottle of 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal, to compare to the 1998 Fonseca Guimaraens?

Updated draft of placemats.

• +Panascal 1998.

[DRT]

Would people be terribly upset if I were to donate a bottle of 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal, to compare to the 1998 Fonseca Guimaraens?

Alex, I know what you are thinking. I deny everything.

[jdaw1]

If an official emergency were declared and I’m willing to declare it I could ask whether Hailsham Cellars would be able to post a 1996 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal to the RAF Club. Again, would anybody be very upset? (Minor upset doesn’t matter.)

Edit: cancel that. A phone call produced the answer ‟We are on the ’98 now”.

[JacobH]

Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman

The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...

Axel

Clearly there is a problem with the slowness of Luftwaffe intelligence

Especially since, going by the date the rank of Brigadier-General was abolished, JDAW would have held it for approximately 90 years.

Or is he secretly a Canadian?

[Andy Velebil]

Would people be terribly upset if I were to donate a bottle of 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal, to compare to the 1998 Fonseca Guimaraens?

Updated draft of placemats.

• +Panascal 1998.

As soldiers we must be prepared in the event a tragedy occurs involving a rouge cork tree and all back ups must be in decanted and poured just in case. New environmental rules also dictate nothing goes to waste

[DRT]

EMERGENCY!!!!

I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005

Does anyone have one hidden under the floorboards, in a cupboard, anywhere?

I have searched all the online places I know and get only one hit, which turns out to be "Out of Stock".

Please look in all the usual places you normally look when searching for port. Time is short.

Tom, don't trust your database. Go and look at all 3,000 labels in your cellar. I'm sure I saw one in there last time I visited.

Oh, and while you are all looking, please shout if you see the 64, 62, 58, 54, 52, 46, 44 or 31

[jdaw1]

IMPORTANT

EMERGENCY!!!!

It is for the reader to judge relative gravity.

[DRT]

IMPORTANT

EMERGENCY!!!!

It is for the reader to judge relative gravity.

Yes. Some posts on this forum sometimes drift slightly away from being completely serious so I wanted to draw attention to these two particular posts in case people skimmed over them thinking that they might not be life-threatening issues.

[JacobH]

I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005

Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

[DRT]

I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005

Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

Dear God! It's worse than I thought. We need two of everything!!!!

[JacobH]

I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005

Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

Dear God! It's worse than I thought. We need two of everything!!!!

If we could locate a Dow and Vargellas ’72 and the 1974 we could top off the ‟most definitive FG tasting, ever”, with ‟the most definitive ’72 and ’74 tastings, ever”...

[jdaw1]

Updated draft of placemats.

• +Guimaraens 1964. (Also FG64 TN thread created and linked.)

[jdaw1]

I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005

• +Guimaraens 1964. (Also FG64 TN thread created and linked.)

Of course gaining the FG64 makes the problem worse, as it widens the range over which FG74 is the only gap: now from 1964 to 2005. So finding the ’74 has become even more important.

[DRT]

FG64 is now in my possession.

[jdaw1]

FP98 in mine.

[DRT]

FP98 in mine.

Could you spare 13 small samples, please? I promise you will have sufficient left for yourself.

[jdaw1]

F66: I’ve looked in the place where the Fonseca 1966 was meant to be, and what was there was a bottle of Fonseca 1966. That bullet successfully dodged.

[JacobH]

Updated draft of placemats.

• +Guimaraens 1964. (Also FG64 TN thread created and linked.)

Should the title be updated to note that there is a bottle of Panascal included? Also, is the wine-of-the-night page too dense to be practical (a genuine question: I haven’t tried printing it to see)?

Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.

[jdaw1]

Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.

Not so. The printing is of the PDF, which has been distilled. The calculations for each page have been done. (Average page size: only 4k!)

Vote recorder: if too dense, the second (‟Q:”) session-voting pages could be used. Between the six voting pages something should work.

[JacobH]

Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.

Not so. The printing is of the PDF, which has been distilled. The calculations for each page have been done. (Average page size: only 4k!)

I have replied in the placemat thread on the basis that it is probably more relevant there.

Vote recorder: if too dense, the second (‟Q:”) session-voting pages could be used. Between the six voting pages something should work.

Ah, true.

PS. I forgot to mention that the debugging output is attached as the very last page of the document: should it be there?

[jdaw1]

I forgot to mention that the debugging output is attached as the very last page of the document: should it be there?

I saw no harm, and possible small gain if somebody else (you?) had to make some last-moment alteration.