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NV Fonseca 10 yr Tawny (bottled 1979)
Tasted at Chez Bridgeman this evening.

AHB (tasting blind): That smells really old. It has that rosemary antiseptic nose.

DRT: It has a really green rim. Oh, it's just the reflection of the green table mat

AHB: Is this the Ferreira 1863?
DRT: No.

AHB: This is really rather nice. Smells like a really old vintage port. Very tasty.

DRT agreed.

Strawberries was my immediate reaction when I opened 1 just over a year ago.

DRT wrote:AHB: Is this the Ferreira 1863?
DRT: No.

Isn't there some sort of forfeit involved when you mis-guess in a blind tasting by more than a Century?

JacobH wrote:

DRT wrote:AHB: Is this the Ferreira 1863?
DRT: No.

Isn't there some sort of forfeit involved when you mis-guess in a blind tasting by more than a Century?

Yes. There is. The forfeit is to have your humiliation posted for the world to see for evermore - even to be included in the archives held in the British Library for future generations reference.

I must protest my side of the story, though. The last time I drank a 10 year old tawny was when I last went to Munich - 4 years ago. I do not buy tawny and do not choose to drink tawny port unless a so called friend forces me to have a glass. To combine that with the confusion of having first tasted several 2008 samples and components and the tawny being bottled more than 30 years ago, no wonder my poor senses were baffled.

But I still maintain that what I describe as a "rosemary, antiseptic" nose is very distinctive and is only found in very old wine. That was what completely confused me. Perhaps there was a small amount of very old wine in the blend that was giving the nose which I picked up.

And I should point out that there is a forfeit involved for being the person who plays such a cruel trick on a port buddy. That forfeit is to miss out on the next bottle of Fonseca 1963 / 66 / 70 that is opened at home or an offline

In my defence: AHB was reviewing my drafting prior to the Submit button being pressed