Wed 06 March 2013, The Bung Hole, Blind at Short Notice

[jdaw1]

AHB was in town, and asked for company at The Bung Hole at a small blind tasting. DRT was in town, without port, so JDAW brought one for each. Later in the evening, we were randomly joined by two port novices, so a 10Y Otima was bought for comparative purposes.

Links:

• Review of evening as a whole;
• 1986 Graham Malvedos (=AHB);
• 1985 Taylor (=DRT, though known to JDAW);
• 1998 Taylor Vargellas (=JDAW);
• 10Y Warre Otima;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

WOTN: left, for drinking now; right, for drinking at best for all ports thought not to be in the past

[Alex Bridgeman]

It was a slightly surreal evening. We only had a burger for dinner; the port was nearly finished by 9pm; and I finished off the evening drinking tawny port.

What was going on last night?

Great vintage ports though. The Taylor 1985 has really blossomed since its foul days of 2-3 years ago and is really rather good. The Malvedos 1986 is just astonishingly young. The Vargellas 1998 was the first time I've tried this port and I was delighted with what I found - 1998 really does seem to be a year which is drinking very nicely now, if I look across my experience with this bottle, Cavadinha, Fonseca Guimaraens, Malvedos, Senhora da Ribeira and Vesuvio.

[DRT]

An excellent light evening's drinking. Thanks go to JDAW for allowing me to adopt a very good example of T85 and for encouraging two the Port novices to join our tasting. It is always a joy to meet new people who are keen to learn about our hobby.