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In honour of the presence in London of Dr Dirk Bruns, people gathered at the The Crusting Pipe on Tuesday 3rd January 2012 to taste some 1977s. Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1977 Sandeman;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1977 Taylor;
• 1977 Gould Campbell;
• 1977 Niepoort;
• 1977 Morgan;
• 1977 Cálem;
• 1977 Delaforce;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

GC77: decanted 14:50. By a long margin the darkest. Nose very pruney; taste starts bitter (it is GC), then not noted. It was in all three senses very different to all the other 1977s.

very dark by comparison to the others, with real tannic bite - could be of a different vintage! Great stuff, albeit quite closed at outset and never fully opened up. Could not improve on jdaw1's "prunes". Bags of potential - suspect would have benefitted from longer decant ***(**) (89 for current drinking)

Deep red and opaque. Closed on the nose, perhaps a slight show of bitter blackcurrant. Hollow impact; some spicy dark chocolate on the mid-palate but not with a good balance - ungainly, bitter and dry. Big warm aftertaste and a long finish. Disappointingly unbalanced, not right. 84/100. 5 hour decant.