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Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 14:55 Thu 27 Oct 2011
by g-man
I've been thinking about our tasting formats
Both sides of the pound now utilize similar glasses for tasting, but we've seen that glasses with bigger bowls could potentially lead to better drinking.
Was thinking in terms of format, perhaps we should also bring some larger glasses so that we could clean out the tasting glasses early (saves on drunk packing) and clears out the table space.
Re: Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 17:12 Mon 31 Oct 2011
by DRT
How does replacing 35 small glasses with 35 large glasses clear out table space?
...and presumably the 35 large glasses would then be subjected to "drunk packing"?
Re: Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 18:53 Mon 31 Oct 2011
by g-man
DRT wrote:How does replacing 35 small glasses with 35 large glasses clear out table space?
...and presumably the 35 large glasses would then be subjected to "drunk packing"?
1 big glass
35 small glasses
presumably after tasting 35 small glasses, 1 big glass should suffice and if so, should we have notes on the big glass
Re: Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 19:01 Mon 31 Oct 2011
by RAYC
g-man wrote:DRT wrote:How does replacing 35 small glasses with 35 large glasses clear out table space?
...and presumably the 35 large glasses would then be subjected to "drunk packing"?
1 big glass
35 small glasses
presumably after tasting 35 small glasses, 1 big glass should suffice and if so, should we have notes on the big glass
WS1 took this approach to sample bottling at the Fonseca Guimaraens tasting earlier this year and all post-92 ports went into a 500ml "crusted"!
Re: Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 02:00 Tue 01 Nov 2011
by Roy Hersh
Derek is right ... and I think the issue is more about drunk typing.
Re: Port Tasting vs Port drinking
Posted: 18:30 Tue 01 Nov 2011
by SushiNorth
I think we ought to comp the undrunk packer*
I've actually been thinking a lot about this issue. If i were to do a home tasting, I think I'd be more likely to offer people tasting circles (precut) to put on their glasses. The circles would come with the wine printed on them, and a spot for each to write in their initials. That would enable people to take a few glasses, put some wine in each (with corresponding labels) and carry them about. They could potentially re-use glasses, provided the preceding wine didn't have too much bottle stink. That reduces the number of glasses. It also means that if someone wants a bigger glass, it's compatible with the circles.
Similarly, when we taste at a restaurant, it's certainly difficult to eat with a field of glasses in front of us. We could simply bring less port (lol) or we could insist that people taste first, then reduce their glass count. This takes away from "let it sit in the glass for 3 hours..." and also becomes a problem for people who pour a bit too much and want to reduce their glass count before their wine is finished.
On the topic of heavy pours, we walk a fine line between "if you drink it, and all get a reasonable taste, no pour is too big" and "how the heck can you smell anything with the wine two inches from the top?" I am reluctant to suggest pouring spouts, but perhaps that would be an appropriate approach. Certainly what we did (where everyone pours one wine, walking around the table) needs to be fixed as we wind up with very uneven pours.
*i'm biased; my wife supervised rinsing/packing the 81 glasses used at last friday's tasting