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Regret unavailabile due to only just having flown back from Madeira and having to cope with resultant email deluge. Regret much not least because it’s been a while since port.

I so confirm. I have the Vesuvio 1994 in London and propose to pick up the rest of ports I have proffered next weekend. If I find I have mislaid any in the interim I will let you know. I can then drink the ones we don't need for this tasting over the next few months which will be no hardship.

Week of 29th April good for me - previous week I am in USA.

@mcoulson - jolly good, I’ll open the 1994 when I get back to the UK on Saturday, since you have gone for the 1992. Your are right that there are no bargains any more in that supermarket on the Estrada Monumental. There was an M E Fernandes Verdelho with no price on it. It’s a nice wine I’ve had man...

We have done ‘85 recently. I am not available on the night of the ‘75 tasting.

Confirmed, Reccua 1995, subject to finding it.

I no longer have the magnum of Taylor 1982 but I think the Reccua 1995 is still on the rack in Rutland.

That 1896 Colheita was a miraculous drink.

Ditto. Flights already booked - guaranteed places.

However this does not apply if you book a flight from Battersea Heliport to the B&F.

Oh that sounds fun. Yes please, subject to court commitments.

Opened and decanted 48 hours ago, in fridge since, this glass left to warm to cool room temperature. I think what is so attractive about this port now is that it combines that exuberant grapiness which makes very young VP so much fun with the less fiery characteristics of mature vintage port. As oth...

2/

Potted crab with glass of manzanilla
Steak medium well, skinny fries, green salad
Welsh rarebit

Confirmed!

Wowzers. $300 a night is excessive. I’ve put team members up there before now and it’s never run more than £149. Clearly there’s a convention in town that week!

I might have a fair bit of Niepoort LBV… I’d be up for some LBV action, maybe two tastings in early summer, one for ‘old LBV’ defined as pre 2010 vintage, and another for post 2009 vintage. They are very different drinks old and young. I think I still have a 1995 somewhere… I had a magnum of Taylor ...

Novotel London Bridge

Opened 2000 Day 1, decanted 0800 Day 2, consumed 1800-2130 Day 2. Paling rim but stil quite deep in the centre. All the power in the world on the nose. Palate rich and lush and full of glossy fruit, with a good hint of panda licorice bar towards the end of the mid-palate. Congruent finish goes on fo...

Opened 2000 Day 1, decanted 0800 Dy 2, consumed 1800-2130 Day 2.

Paling rim. Good 'mature port' colour, 40% opaque. Nice spice on nose. Unctuous palate reminiscent of cherry cough drops. Little bit of clementine and star anise on the finish.

Delicious. Best bottle of this I've had in twenty years.

Thirty-six and a half years on from my first bottle, 1967 Cockburn can still be transcendental. Who knew.

@ nac, @ Alex - notes on the 1998s appreciated. Possibly the last vintage of Aussie wines before the alcohol got crazy?

@Alex - being able to identify it is a genetic gift (or, Glenn would argue, disadvantage…) This evening a 2003 Tesco Finest Chateauneuf du Pape that was both stewed and oxidised - oddly impressive to have both present in one. Smelled of prunes, tasted of copper pipes. Happily, I had expected it to b...

The TtD 2003 (bottle 2 - bottle 1 was subtly corked) was a fairly full-throated wine in early maturity. I would say a touch below your Christmas bottle - perhaps 89 points on your scale. But it was bottle 12 of the evening (there having been some Georgian Quevri Saperavi red, a bottle of Domaine Vin...

Needed its three hour decant. Very fine for a port drinker but very much a fruit and tannin balance wine. Old school? In bottle, ready. In magnum needs another 6 years.

Thanks for the tip. I go to ALL of them. Every trip. You never know when you’re going to find a bottle of 1957 Bual in a backstreet supermarket for 80 euros…. It’s basically part of my annual exercise routine - a week of fifteen miles a day, if all is well carrying increasingly heavy loads in my ruc...

I know that shop well and will indeed be visiting it in three weeks. Lots of expensive wine in poor condition. But the occasional not unamusing little trouve nevertheless. They used to have a wonderful range of miniatures of old spirits, which I think the owner used to buy off the stewards of cruise...