Alan,
Perhaps if I explain some other things I can aleviate your concerns.
Behind the scenes, principally because it is not practical for 13 people to organise one event, AHB, Jdaw and I have been debating how to organise the evening so that it goes smoothly and we maximise the time available to enjoy each others company and the ports. What we have come up with is as follows:
1. We will attempt to get all of the ports to the venue by 4pm on 28th January. I am taking the bottles I have to The Crusting Pipe this Monday coming to allow them time to stand before decanting and also so that they do not have to undergo a 200 mile train journey on the day of the tasting. Jdaw and AHB are bringing their bottles to the venue at 4pm on the 28th. I will have separate discussions with the others (JK and Simon) who are bringing bottles to try to get them there as early as possible.
2. We have managed to reserve both tunnels at The Crusting Pipe. These are side by side with a common entrance. One tunnel will be used for eating and drinking some prelimenary port (water or wine for the Jessies amongst us) and we will then move to the second tunnel to taste the 1966s.
3. AHB, Jdaw and I will meet at the Pipe at 16:00 on the 28th to decant the ports. We will then set out the Placemats and pour an even measure of each port for each person. Depending on how many glasses we secure from the venue we may have to leave one or two ports in the bottle until empty glasses become available. I really don't think this will be necessary but that's our contingency for glass shortage.
4. We plan to start the event at 18:30. By that time, Tunnel 2 will have 13 places set, each with 15 port glasses filled and layed out on the placemats. This area will be off limits to everyone, including staff, until around 20:30, by which time the ports will have had around 4 hours of air time.
5. We will eat between 18:30 and 20:30. This will allow anyone who cannot make the early start to join us before we commence the tasting. AHB has already suggested somewhere that we buy a couple of bottles of port from the Pipe to enjoy with the meal. Delaforce 1985 has been suggested as a likely victim and it is thought that this would be covered by the £50 per head that was estimated for food, corkage, glasses etc.
6. When we sit down to taste the port you will hopefully have all 15 wines layed out in front of you. Some of us will choose to deal with these in flights, taking notes, talking about coal dust and over-ripe willy-willy fruit etc. Others may choose to just work their way through the wines in whatever order takes their fancy. Both approaches, and any other that an individual chooses, are valid and acceptable.
7. One thing to bear in mind when starting to drink the ports is that there will be nothing left in the bottles. So what you have in your glass at the beginning is all you will have of each wine. For this reason I expect many will choose to taste all of them briefly and then re-visit each before whacking them back in reverse order of greatness. At least that's my plan
Hopefully this plan is user-friendly enough to stop you worrying that its all too anal.
Pretentious? Moi?
Derek
