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Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 12:25 Wed 18 Jun 2014
by LGTrotter
According to your own statistics you have tasted the 1863 four times and the 1815 twice. Check the facts please Alex...

I would also argue that the 1871 scarcely counts as a pre phylloxera wine. Or did it arrive later in the duoro?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 12:46 Wed 18 Jun 2014
by jdaw1
LGTrotter wrote:According to your own statistics you have tasted the 1863 four times and the 1815 twice. Check the facts please Alex...
Presumably different shippers within each vintage.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 18:33 Fri 20 Jun 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
LGTrotter wrote:According to your own statistics you have tasted the 1863 four times and the 1815 twice. Check the facts please Alex...
I don't understand the point you're making. I've drunk from 2 different bottles which contained port from the 1815 vintage and 4 different bottles which contained port from the 1863 vintage.
I would also argue that the 1871 scarcely counts as a pre phylloxera wine. Or did it arrive later in the duoro?
This I completely accept. I was being loose with my wording. Phylloxera arrived in the Douro in the late 1850s but replanting on grafted rootstock did not begin until the mid 1870s. Thus strictly speaking the 1871 is not a pre phylloxera wine, but it is a wine from ungrafted vines which were probably struggling to survive louse attacks on their roots.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 20:08 Fri 20 Jun 2014
by LGTrotter
AHB wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:According to your own statistics you have tasted the 1863 four times and the 1815 twice. Check the facts please Alex...
I don't understand the point you're making. I've drunk from 2 different bottles which contained port from the 1815 vintage and 4 different bottles which contained port from the 1863 vintage.
Looking back I don't understand the point I was making. I think I saw 1815, assumed you were talking about the Ferreira and thought this is one wine tasted twice. But no, you have manged to find four different shippers of the 1863. Good work.

I do love the pointless statistics, please keep them coming.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 18:23 Mon 29 Dec 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
In late 2013/early 2014 AHB wrote:Now for some cellar statistics:

92% of my cellar is Port, 3% Bordeaux, 2% Champagne, 1% Australian and the rest bits and pieces with no single source accounting for more than 0.5% of my bottles.

88% of my Port corks are in 75 or 70cl bottles, 9% in half bottles, 3% in large formats.

69% of my Port is Vintage Port, 24% is single quinta VP, 5% is LBV, 1% is Crusted and the remainder is NV, odds and sods and brown sticky stuff.

I have 446 different ports. 9% is from the 2011 vintage, 8% is from 1963 and 6% from 1994. 56% of my Port stocks are ready for drinking (ie. 21 or more years old).

15% of my Port is Vesuvio, 8% is Graham and 8% is Warre.
My cellar statistics are ready to be updated for the end of the 2014 calendar year (I still have quite a few tasting notes to type up so it will be a while before I can post tasting statistics).
My aim was to end 2014 with fewer bottles than I started. I failed; I have 7 more bottles now than I did at this time last year. However, that is the smallest increase I have managed in the last 15 years so all is not lost. Next year should see the number go down. This year my purchases were 3% Bordeaux, 5% Champagne, 10% English White Wine, 1% English Sparkling Wine, 1% other French, 1% Italian, 51% Port, 4% Portuguese, 8% South African, 16% Spanish.
4% of the corks I bought were in half bottles, 8% were in larger format, 88% were in 75cl bottles.
Of the Port purchased, 4% was LBV, 4% was crusted, 2% was colheita and the rest was vintage port.

91% (2013: 92%) of my cellar is Port, 3% (3%) Bordeaux, 2% (2%) Champagne, 1% (1%) Australia, 1% (<0.5%) South Africa, 1% (<0.5%) Spain and the rest bits and pieces with no other single source accounting for more than 0.5% of my bottles.

88% (88%) of my Port corks are in 75cl bottles, 8% (9%) in half bottles, 4% (3%) in large formats.

69% (69%) of my Port is Vintage Port, 25% (24%) is single quinta VP, 5% (5%) is LBV, 1% (1%) is Crusted and there is a handful of NV, odds and sods and brown sticky stuff.

I have 457 (446) different ports. 9% (9%) is from the 2011 vintage, 8% (8%) is from 1963 and 7% (6%) from 1994. 61% (56%) of my Port stocks are ready for drinking (ie. 21 or more years old).

15% (15%) of my Port is Vesuvio, 8% (8%) is Graham, 8% (7%) is Fonseca and 8% (8%) is Warre.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 18:27 Mon 29 Dec 2014
by jdaw1
AHB wrote:My aim was to end 2014 with fewer bottles than I started. I failed; I have 7 more bottles now than I did at this time last year.
The fat lady has not sung. Bring eight bottles to the tasting on Tuesday 30th December and you will have achieved your mission.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 22:07 Mon 29 Dec 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
jdaw1 wrote:
AHB wrote:My aim was to end 2014 with fewer bottles than I started. I failed; I have 7 more bottles now than I did at this time last year.
The fat lady has not sung. Bring eight bottles to the tasting on Tuesday 30th December and you will have achieved your mission.
Not going to happen. I'm already committed to other things tomorrow night.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 22:11 Mon 29 Dec 2014
by jdaw1
AHB wrote:Not going to happen. I'm already committed to other things tomorrow night.
Hmm: could I get to Wokingham in time to save AHB’s year?

Yes.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 22:20 Mon 29 Dec 2014
by RAYC
Time to make some more tappit hens then....3 should do it if you drink a further bottle while you work!

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 00:28 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by LGTrotter
Thank you for the pointless statistics Alex, Christmas is no longer complete without them. I hope Tom will do a yearly round up too.

But just to question a few; I take it you include Vesuvio under single Quinta rather than vintage? And then there is a mention of 457 different ports with 446 in brackets; what does the 446 refer to?

I am rather surprised at the overwhelming preponderance of port in your cellar, I expected more claret. Good to see champagne gets a healthy slice of what's left. But no mention of burgundy. :roll:

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 00:37 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by RAYC
I think figures in brackets are for last year. Page 2 of this thread contains discussion of how AHB classifies sqvp

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 01:22 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by LGTrotter
RAYC wrote:I think figures in brackets are for last year. Page 2 of this thread contains discussion of how AHB classifies sqvp
I see I need to do my homework.

Done on the back of an envelope my statistics go; Champagne 5%, claret 29%, burgundy 12%, Madeira 2%, all port 43% (breaks down into 26% vintage port and 17% cellar defenders*/brown stickies) and everything else 10%. These are wines that will hang around rather than the daily ebb and flow from the cupboard under the stairs.

*To confuse matters I have included Tesco 94 among cellar defenders rather than vintage port. Cellar defenders include all crusted and SQVP.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 11:55 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
LGTrotter wrote:And then there is a mention of 457 different ports with 446 in brackets; what does the 446 refer to?
RAYC wrote:I think figures in brackets are for last year.
Rob is correct - figures in brackets are the ones I reported last year.
LGTrotter wrote:I am rather surprised at the overwhelming preponderance of port in your cellar, I expected more claret. Good to see champagne gets a healthy slice of what's left. But no mention of burgundy. :roll:
What can I say? I am a port drinker; I drink port. When I can't drink vintage port I drink other port. When I can't drink other port I drink some kind of port. Only when I can't drink some kind of port will I drink something else - I drink perhaps a case a year of non-port wine from my cellar (and Mrs B drinks several times that, but rarely of claret). To keep up with my drinking preference I need a lot of port and not a lot of non-port.

Burgundy **shudder**. No. There is no Burgundy in my cellar. When a bottle occasionally turns up through gift or mixed lot purchase, it is used in cooking. If it is a great Burgundy it might be opened and consumed in the hope that it will reveal to me why people whose palates I trust rave about Burgundy. But no epiphany so far. Good Burgundy is wasted on me. There are others who will enjoy good Burgundy far more than I do and it would be churlish of me to be a barrier to the Burgundy-lovers of the world. I like my wines big, bold and brash - shiraz, claret, port, (rioja, sangiovese).
LGTrotter wrote:Done on the back of an envelope my statistics go; Champagne 5%, claret 29%, burgundy 12%, Madeira 2%, all port 43% (breaks down into 26% vintage port and 17% cellar defenders*/brown stickies) and everything else 10%. These are wines that will hang around rather than the daily ebb and flow from the cupboard under the stairs.

*To confuse matters I have included Tesco 94 among cellar defenders rather than vintage port. Cellar defenders include all crusted and SQVP.
I put Tesco '94 into my statistics as a vintage port. I think it's too good to be relegated to the status of cellar defender! Shame on you for dissing a top quality port simply because it's cheap(ish) and readily available. Who knows when stocks might run out and then you'll be sorry you called it a cellar defender - a 21 year-old vintage port being a cellar defender! Honestly! What are we going to do about the youth of today?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 13:02 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by LGTrotter
AHB wrote:I put Tesco '94 into my statistics as a vintage port. I think it's too good to be relegated to the status of cellar defender! Shame on you for dissing a top quality port simply because it's cheap(ish) and readily available. Who knows when stocks might run out and then you'll be sorry you called it a cellar defender - a 21 year-old vintage port being a cellar defender! Honestly! What are we going to do about the youth of today?
To readjust my statistics according to Alex's suggestion about Tesco 94 I now have 10% cellar defenders and 33% vintage port.

And did everybody get that? I'm youth! Or do you think the Alex's last statement was a more general comment unrelated to my status as Narcissus of :tpf: ?
AHB wrote:Burgundy **shudder**. No. There is no Burgundy in my cellar. When a bottle occasionally turns up through gift or mixed lot purchase, it is used in cooking.
Cooking? Arrrggghhhhh.....

Never mind about the youth of today; what can we do about this kind of reckless behaviour in one so stricken in years?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 13:25 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by djewesbury
Settle down. Here are my pointless statistics. What a waste of time. And there's an error: I realised halfway through the calculation that one of those lots wasn't a 6-bottle case any more as we'd drunk one last week. The perils of record keeping at Christmas. Needless to say I preferred to keep the error rather than change all the totals after it by one. This list includes anything in storage anywhere but not en primeurs that are undelivered. Also, I have counted some things as VP such as Vieira da Souza, Poças or Quevedo, as I have no proof that they are all 'single quinta' wines in the strict sense. Perversely, I also counted Bioma as a full VP. I know.

My cellar is 75% port of all kinds, 14% claret, 4% Sauternes, 1% Madeira and the rest is odds and sods.

38% of the cellar (51% of all port) is VP.
18% of the cellar (24% " " ") is SQVP.
10.5% " " " (14% " " ") is LBV of all kinds.
The rest of the port is TWAIOA/Colheita/White Colheita (combined makes 3% of the total cellar) or Reserve (3.5% of total).

Large formats (Mags and above) are 5.5% of my port. Halves are 8% of my port but 10% of my total cellar (because I have Sauternes in halves as well).

Where did that get us?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 13:34 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
LGTrotter wrote:
AHB wrote:Burgundy **shudder**. No. There is no Burgundy in my cellar. When a bottle occasionally turns up through gift or mixed lot purchase, it is used in cooking.
Cooking? Arrrggghhhhh.....

Never mind about the youth of today; what can we do about this kind of reckless behaviour in one so stricken in years?
But what else would you suggest could be used to make a boeuf bourguignon?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 13:36 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by Alex Bridgeman
djewesbury wrote:Where did that get us?
Nowhere, other than to confirm that you are in the right place when visiting the PORT forum and that you do not need to go elsewhere to seek solace and therapy. We can continue to act as your support group for at least another year.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 13:37 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by djewesbury
AHB wrote:
djewesbury wrote:Where did that get us?
Nowhere, other than to confirm that you are in the right place when visiting the PORT forum and that you do not need to go elsewhere to seek solace and therapy. We can continue to act as your support group for at least another year.
We need a "willing patient" emoticon. And perhaps the Admins should be promoted to "Doctor" or even "Consultant".

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 14:26 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by jdaw1
djewesbury wrote:And perhaps the Admins should be promoted to "Doctor" or even "Consultant".
In the context of this thread, surely ‘Epidemiologist’.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 14:34 Tue 30 Dec 2014
by djewesbury
jdaw1 wrote:
djewesbury wrote:And perhaps the Admins should be promoted to "Doctor" or even "Consultant".
In the context of this thread, surely ‘Epidemiologist’.
I defer to your seniority, O Whatever-you-are.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 16:06 Wed 31 Dec 2014
by LGTrotter
I counted to 47 different ports from memory before I nodded off. I have more than this, but not very much more including one white port. So that makes it 48. At least.

Only one magnum of port.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 01:57 Thu 01 Jan 2015
by AW77
LGTrotter wrote: burgundy 12%,
And what's the proportion of white and red burgundy in these 12 % ?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 02:01 Thu 01 Jan 2015
by LGTrotter
AW77 wrote:
LGTrotter wrote: burgundy 12%,
And what's the proportion of white and red burgundy in these 12 % ?
All red. I used to keep a dozen of mixed Chablis, but alas no more.

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 14:54 Thu 01 Jan 2015
by PhilW
AHB wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:
AHB wrote:Burgundy **shudder**. No. There is no Burgundy in my cellar. When a bottle occasionally turns up through gift or mixed lot purchase, it is used in cooking.
Cooking? Arrrggghhhhh.....

Never mind about the youth of today; what can we do about this kind of reckless behaviour in one so stricken in years?
But what else would you suggest could be used to make a boeuf bourguignon?
Was it Dow(?) 1963 or was that just for Spaghetti Bolognese?

Re: Pointless Statistics

Posted: 15:02 Thu 01 Jan 2015
by jdaw1
PhilW wrote:Was it Dow(?) 1963 or was that just for Spaghetti Bolognese?
It was Fonseca.