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A bottle from the recent Blenheim Palace clear out. Level into neck. Short cork but excellent seal and came out clean, violets bursting from bottle as I did so. Half hour decant. A lovely clear mature garnet. Liquorice and cranberry on the nose. Strawberries and cream on front palate, cranberry and ...

The Alchemist chain is fine so long as you like house music (and not talking). Your experience may vary.

Today has gone well. There is an outside chance we may be done Thursday night, in which case I will turn up with a thirst and a hopeful expression (not with the Judge in tow though).

Yes please

A good Gruaud Larose is truly a thing of beauty.

The usual light red, more rose than garnet, of Warre 1977. Both the almond crumb and the raspberry jam of the Bakewell tart were present and correct. Decanted for two hours and consumed over two nights and every glassful good drinking. Better on its own than with anything. Cheese interfered with the...

@Mike J.W. - I'd serve Warre, Dow, Vesuvio, Croft, Crasto, Smith Woodhouse on one night, and Taylor, Fonseca, Graham, Gould Campbell, Ferreira, Noval the next. That way you're pretty much guaranteed to have people holding up two or three wines each night and saying 'now THAT's port'.

Well that's reasonably emphatic.

Carcavelos is a name that appears on some C18th silver wine labels thus a testament to the UK fondness for it.

I remain sorrowful about my inability to attend but it’s bad form to walk out of a court hearing to go to a tappit hen tasting.

Why not go to the Tower of London? Tickets are 35 from historic royal palaces ( hrp.org.uk ). An audio guide is an extra £4. Tell me what it’s like if you do as I’ve lived in London for 29 years and never been. I agree with Martin that the Soane museum is interesting but it’s also more than slightly...

My sincere apologies, but I am now no longer going to be able to come to this tasting. I am deluged with work.

A deep gold. Colour dropped out. Rather odd nose. Smells of turps with a little bit of bleach in the background. No fruit character. On palate, orange. Rather less unpleasant than nose would suggest.

A shimmering mahogany. Dumb spirity nose. Palate a bit lacking. Some prune on the finish. Not right IMHO.

Brownish. Yellow rim. Prunes on nose. Chocolate and cream on palate. A little tea.

Paler than the 1981. This is very nice port.

A beautiful red. Palate packed with rich red fruit and so smooth. The best 1981 port I've ever had.

Beautifully mature deep red. A little dumb on the nose. Beautiful palate. By a margin the best 1979 I have ever had.

Inky black. Nose quite pruney. Big thick port of the 'portuguese' variety. Cloves.

A little exotic on the nose. On the palate... oh. Bacteriological problem. Faded drains. Shame.

Pale rim. Sulphurous nose. This is not very good.

Bright garnet. Very pleasant port, but nothing more to say than that.

Bottled 1974. Rubber on the nose - sufficiently such that I thought it might be Graham 1970. But a bit more spirity. Bit of VA.

Regret am in week long hearing

Well that was a remarkable tasting. I am not sure we have ever had a ten port tasting where three wines got all the points.