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1963 Offley Baron de Forrester Colheita The label on this bottle noted that the wine had been "matured in wood" and "bottled in 1988". There was some fine sediment that had built up along the side of the bottle, but as soon as I went to decant the wine it reintegrated back into ...

This wine was served with dessert at a dinner I attended last night. It was dissappointing. I agree with Julian that this was not Taylor's best effort in a long run. At best, medium to light ruby in color. There's a little alcohol heat on the palate, but not oppressive. The wine had very little swee...

Thanks very much guys. I appreciate the help.

Thanks very much! One follow up question. What's the proper service temperature for Belgian beer? Should it be cold, cool, or room temp?

Hello all, I need your recommendations on the best Belgian beers, preferably those available in the U.S. I'm going to a great BYOB restaurant in a few weeks, and the chef is really into Belgian beer. I would like to bring some for he and the kitchen team, because it's always good to keep the chefs h...

This wine is bottled by Niepoort, but is definitely not their standard VP bottling. The wine was tasted after being double decanted (once into the decanter, then put back in the bottle for transportation after rinsing the bottle with ruby port), with the tasting occuring 3 hours after the decanting....

RonnieRoots wrote:Yet another victim of the mysterious '85 VA disease...

I know I've heard this was happening, but this is the first time I've run into it. I haven't experienced it in any bottles of Fonseca, Dow, or Warre's.

I'm not so sure you had a bad bottle. I opened a bottle today because I had read conflicting notes on this wine, so I thought I better try the one I have. This bottle looked great, so I think storage conditions were ok. Upon initial decanting, the color was very light red, with very little nose. The...

1985 Croft I measured in inches using a micrometer and converted it ti millimeters using a website. Cork data: Length: 1.952 in. / 49.6 mm Cork diameter at top: .684 in / 17.4 mm Cork diameter at bottom: .852 in / 21.6 mm Bottle inside neck diameter: .666 in / 16.9 mm I can only attribute the neck ...

g-man wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:Their opener was a needle that went through the cork and shot compressed air popping out the cork

That's assuming the bottle doesn't explode, which has been known to happen on more than a few occassions with these openers. Definitely not for use with bottles 50+ years old.

I don't like the fact that the screw goes all the way through the cork so I will try to be a bit more subtle. In my experience, and looking at it from a physics perspective, I think completely penetrating the cork is the only way for a corkscrew to sucessfully remove a port cork. If the entire cork...

After years of breaking port corks, and not liking the port tongs idea, I looked far and wide for a screwpull-like corkscrew that would have a worm long enough to fully penetrate the cork before it started to lift it from the bottle. It took a couple of years, but I finally found one in a wine shop ...

Thanks for the notes Julian. I have only one bottle left of the '63 Graham and have been waiting for a good opportunity to open it. I'm glad it's still holding up well. I've held on to this bottle because it and its mate were the first bottles of VP I ever purchased when I got really interested in w...

Hi Julian,

I guess I pulled the trigger too soon. I check the American website and I can't use my free ticket on those days that I noted as open in March. I'll have to pass. Bummer!

Hi Julian, I would love to attend, as I have a free airline ticket burning a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately, the latter half of March is pretty tight for me and the only dates that would work would be the evening of Friday the 14th or Friday the 28th. If one of those ends up being the date and you...

Hello all, This dinner is going to be postponed until the spring of 2009. Unfortunately, the chef I'm working with is leaving the restaurant he's at now and opening his own place in a year. I want to still work with him on the dinner, so I need to push it back. I'll post something on it when we get ...

Hi Julian (and all others not in the Chicago area), I did some checking on hotels. If you wanted to stay at the O'Hare Hilton to make it convenient to your flights, they're quoting a rate as low as $169.00 per night on that weekend. You can then catch a taxi back and forth to the restaurant, or I wo...

Thank you for telling us. How expensive would be accommodation in the vicinity? Hi Julian, I'll check on some options and post them. There are a couple of overall choices that I'll check out. One is to stay in downtown Chicago and take the commuter train to Lake Forest, which stops a block from the...

Hello all, I wanted to make you aware of an event I'm arranging for the Northern Illinois branch of the International Wine & Food Society. I'm doing a Madeira Party, similar to those held in the 19th century. It will be held on Saturday, May 10 at Bank Lane Bistro in Lake Forest, IL., a suburb o...

John , I see these went for around the £250 mark. Now although I would have loved one, for its rarity, and kudos, you can pick up Taylors 77 for £60 regularly on Winesearcher, so the juice itself wasn't a bargain. Is that unfair? Would it still be considered a bargain in the US? Do you generally pa...

Hello all, I just got an email that The Chicago Wine Company is doing a clearance on 2003 Quinta do Noval because they're supplier is dropping the brand. The price is $49.50 per 750ml bottle. Here's the contact info if you're interested: Simon Lambert The Chicago Wine Company 835 N. Central Wood Dal...

Good flavor, mostly raisins and nuts. A little thinner texture than I anticipated for a tawny of this age. The alcohol was a little hot upon opening, but dissipated fairly quickly, within the first 30 minutes. Good for the price ($10 at auction as a bin end), but probably would pay as much as $25 fo...

Thanks everyone for the updates. I'll sit on these bottles for a few years and then give them a go. I'll post notes when I finally open them.

John

Those on Death Row over the next couple of months include:

VP:
1977 Warre
1983 Warre
1985 Warre
1966 Dow
1985 Croft

Colheita/Tawny:

1978 Krohn
Churchill 10-year Tawny
Graham 20-year Tawny
Taylor 30-year Tawny

Should be a good fall and winter.

I've never found these to work. Also, the air you're sucking out of the bottle is also some aroma, which I would rather be smelling. With port, I've kept good ports that were open up to three weeks in my cellar with no degradation at all.