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• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Placemats;
• 1960 Cockburn;
• 1960 Sandeman;
• 1960 Ferreira;
• 1960 Delaforce;
• 1960 Croft;
• 1960 Fonseca;
• 1960 Taylor;
• 1960 Quinta do Noval;
• 1960 Quinta do Noval Nacional;
• 1960 Quinta do Rei;
• 1960 Dow;
• 1960 Graham;
• 1960 Warre;
• 1960 Martinez;
• Planning and arrangements.

This is a story you could not make up!!

Well you know on the night of the 1960 horizontal for Uncle Tom's 50th this wine showed about as average as it can get. Quite an offensive nose of almost 'petrol' then the acidic entry followed by a gush of citrus fruit...especially oranges...then a jammy/marmalade finish....Funnily (delibberate for JDAW) enough exactly the same as the last bottle...so there is consistency. Both were decanted some 4 hours before consumption.

By mistake...and I have to admit due to a large imbibement of beer followed by a solo attack on a G77... which was excellent by the way ...I clearly decided to decant the M60 and then retired to bed at around 2.00am and thought no more of it.

At 3.00pm the following day..and very slightly hungover, I spoke with Uncle Tom about travel arrangements and then I proceeded to uncork my contribution for that evenings gathering....the M60... The wine behaved superbly with the cork coming out in only 3309 separate pieces....I thought that had happened recently but did not know when.

I reached for my favourite decanter only to find it full of wine...where did that come from?..I sobbed...Eventually realising that this task had already taken place some hours earlier.

Having tasted a small sample from each I travelled to the venue with the most recently decanted offering.. but have to report it was not great...hence my initial comments...but...this evening...3 days after the event I have visited the extra decanted M60 (not wanting to waste hrd earnt cash) and what a surprise...it is delicious... the 'petrol' nose has been replaced with a jammy/citrus combination. The entry is smooth and quite complex, the middle has a sharp citrus almost grapefruit and the finish is short but still has a decent amount of heat....Moral of the story is clear...Martinez.(any) decant and drink 3 days later...Simples.

Mz60: My only note said ‟foul”.

Clearly flawed. Not much to add.

Almost as dark in colour as the Warre 1960 shown alongside. Mature redcurrants on the nose; quite hot and full of dust and nutmeg. Slightly musty entry, with good flavours but what seems to be something of a characteristic bitterness from the vintage. Not balanced, still with some tannins showing through. Dry tannins on the aftertaste, mixed in with sweet and sticky red fruit, but very short. 83/100. Drunk after much less than 3 days decanting.

My note says: "Baby's nappy on the nose"

I recall being challenged on the above description on the night and qualified it by confirming I was referring to the medicinal smell of an unsoiled, freshly applied nappy.