Friday 22nd March 2013, Taylor vertical, The Bung Hole

[jdaw1]

We tasted some bottles of Taylor and its relatives, in The Bung Hole, on Friday 22nd March 2013.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1920 Taylor;
• 1924 Taylor;
• 1927 Taylor;
• 1935 Taylor;
• 1945 Taylor;
• 1948 Taylor;
• 1950 Taylor Special Quinta;
• 1955 Taylor;
• 1960 Taylor;
• 1963 Taylor;
• 1965 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas;
• 1966 Taylor;
• 1970 Taylor;
• 1970 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas;
• 1976 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas;
• 1977 Taylor;
• 1980 Taylor;
• 1983 Taylor;
• 1985 Taylor;
• 1986 Taylor Quinta de Terra Feita;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

[jdaw1]

Bottles awaiting opening and decanting.

[jdaw1]

Bottles awaiting opening and decanting.

[jdaw1]

An excellent evening with plenty of excellent juice. Fully eleven different ports received more than no WOTN votes, the winner being the 1948, ten of the fourteen people giving it more than no votes.

More, including pictures, to follow later.

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

Layout of glasses:
 T20   T24   T27   T35   T45
    T48  TSQ50  T55   T60   T63
TV65   T66   T70  TV70  TV76
    T77   T80   T83   T85  TTF86

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

The T55 bottle is missing from this picture, as it was broken to extract the piece of cork saying ‟55”.

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

Our guest of honour scribbled as he talked.

[DRT]

Another thoroughly enjoyable tasting with some stunning wines, many consistently good and only three duffers, all of which were unusual for their vintage

David Guimaraens maintained his reputation as a highly entertaining and informative guest. A big thanks must go to Tom, Julian and Alex who supplied the bulk of the wines and all of the all of the oldies, and also to others who released smaller contributions from their cellars or significant contributions from their wallets in order to help make this happen.

My personal favourites were the 1948, 1945 and 1920. These wines are up there with the best mature vintage ports I have had the privilege to taste. It was a real treat to taste the 1920 for the first time and is an experience I hope to repeat one day. As JDAW rightly pointed out on the night, the 1924 suffered from following the 1920. Tasted alone or without the 1920 on show this wine probably would have gained more votes and is certainly worth re-visiting.

All of the other classic vintages performed to their usual high standard, apart from the slightly corked 1977 and the inexplicably weird 1927. One to note was the TV76, which was fully mature and very nice for everyday drinking. If you find this at a reasonable price it is worth considering a case or two as house port. Unfortunately, the usual Taylor premium pricing might rule out that possibility.

My own contribution, the TV65, was unusually sweet and a little darker than other bottles I have had. That said, it has ensured my continued existence for a further 12 months so it served its intended purpose

Thanks again to all.

Derek

[Glenn E.]

Our guest of honour scribbled as he talked.

Hmm... it looks to me like jdaw1, DRT, and perhaps AHB are doing some treading in the lagar.

[jdaw1]

DBFG did talk about foot treading.

[DRT]

Hmm... it looks to me like jdaw1, DRT, and perhaps AHB are doing some treading in the lagar.

From left to right you even got us in the correct order! Well done, Glenn. Very observant.

[PopulusTremula]

This was a fantastic tasting and many thanks to Derek for organising and also to those who very generously provided the wines. What a line-up!

[DrDirk]

At 18:20 I entered for the first time the Bunghole. Following my nose I easily found the table with all the glasses filled with port. First I could not believe my eye: all ports (exept one) in a perfect condition concering the colour of the ports. This will be fun - and it was great fun. Thank you very much for organising this tasting to all who contributed, selected, keeping watch on the bottles, decanted and prepared the glasses.

My wine of the nights were a little bit different from the other tasters. As example speaking for the 1945, I found this port was too young. It was not perfectly balanced yet.

But the astonishing thing for me was, that the style of the Taylor vintage ports has not changed over all these years. They have a lot of sugar in the beginng and this sugar will only integrate over many many years. And if this sugar is integrated a Taylor VP is a fantastic port.

Hopefully see you all soon while having a glass of port in my hands.
Dirk