ThePortForum.com

To celebrate the Quinquagenary of AHB, he arranged a horizontal of 1963s in Wokingham at The Cantley House Hotel (evenings of Friday 11^th and Saturday 12^th October 2013) and The Walter Arms (lunch on Saturday 12^th), and two evening Champagne tastings for our better halves. Sadly the venue was not able to accommodate all he would have liked to have invited. Diaries had been blocked since early 2012, and bottles had been gathered for most of a decade before that. A splendid weekend indeed.

Partial links:
• Review of the event as a whole, which starts with a full set of links;
• Placemats (and parameters by which constructed).

Some links:
• Review which includes links to the Champagnes; Placemats and their Parameters;
• Fri evening 1963s: VS QH GC Ck G | Kh Pç Mg Av F | RV Rs S Dl Cn;
• Sat aftern’n 1963s: Sb RVi RCV Ad RO | Dm BBR T Cr Ni | Mk Fd O Mz;
• Sat evening 1963s: MC W D N NN | A B&I Df PS Cv | GB Cá CáF B Fr;
• Others: 1863 Burmester, 1977 Warre (tappitt hen), Martinez Crusted bottled 1973, 1966 Château Batailley (magnum).

RO63. Cloudy red. Nose had strong grapefruit. Taste very sour, especially mid-palate, then sweetness.

Cloudy. Heavier than RVi, RCV and Ad but still too sweet and with a sugary finish.

Tasted like a very old bottle of standard ruby - bereft of class..

cloudy red; not great medicinal smell; chemical tasting finish, short; cheap sweet bad finish

The best of the ROP-trio, but not good after all. I would be very tempted to differentiate the whole weekend in English-owned houses and portuguese owned houses for quality reasons with very few exceptions.

Axel

Cloudy red in colour, opaque due to the cloudiness; modest nose, just some faint strawberry syrup. Sweet and pretty bland on the palate. A hint of plastic then a sweet icing sugar. A bit harsh and unbalanced, with a hot flash of acidity that gives a burn which dominates the very long aftertaste. Lacks balance and body, but is drinkable. 80/100. Drunk 12-Oct-13. Decanted 1½ hours.