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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).

It was my wine of the night/weekend and should have the right of the first TN that I post:

The 63 Nacional never fails to impress. Even by the colour when I poured it looks even more than the usual 10y younger, that the Nacional always looks.

Fresh and fruity on the nose with an underlying complexity that one can sense, but it is not fully there, licorice. The palate showes massive fruit, mostly raspberry and chocolate and a decent sweetness. Just extremely slight hints of honey, which tells you that it has not even entered this phase yet. And here is what I like the most about this Port: The aftertaste: Extremely long and multilayered with all kinds of sensations, mostly red berries, honey, Malt.

This Port will outlive all others from this year by far and is - by all means - my Port for my lonley island.

Axel

NN63. Dark dark red, 80% opaque. Nose meaty, perhaps even beef steak madras. Taste very closed, showing heat. Initially I thought that it would open with time in the glass, but it didn’t. Nonetheless, big plum fruits.

Maybe I didn’t quite understand it. I was sitting at a table, smelling a delicious beef madras cooking in the kitchen, but it never quite arrived at the table. More cellar time might help  the opacity confirming the absence of need to hurry.

Edited to fix typo.

Very dark red. Big in the mouth. Initially dark, soft fruit followed by mint and some heat. I have had better examples of this Port and suspect there was some label bias on the night. It was good, but not spectacular as it should be.

DRT wrote:Very dark red. Big in the mouth. Initially dark, soft fruit followed by mint and some heat. I have had better examples of this Port and suspect there was some label bias on the night. It was good, but not spectacular as it should be.

Or your glass was dirty? I kept some of mine overnight and had a small glass of NN63 with my cooked breakfast the following morning. That was rather a nice way to start the day.

AHB wrote:Or your glass was dirty?

Possible. But a few others made similar observations on the night. Hopefully we will get more notes posted here to get an overall impression from the team.

Still typing my notes up. But yes I agree with Derek 100%

Following comments here and at the event, a thread has been started, entitled Label bias. This might be of interest.

Worthy star, little bit of heat but otherwise most elegant in every respect.

A big thankyou to Alex for his generosity in putting this in the lineup.

very dark, blackish concentrated red color; very umami fruity nose; cherry stones and mineralic smell; concenrated taste; very long; very complex, fresh and elegant; "light on its feet" in its appreance; grand, grand port

As highlighted befoer thanks to Alex for his generosity having it in the line.

Very deep in colour with an opaque centre. Complex nose, mixing exotic spices with luscious fruit—pronounced and enjoyable. Rich and fruity on the palate; cherry fruitcake with concentrated power and focused fruit. A big palate presence with potent tannins, still so youthful. A huge dose of focused fruit flavoured acidity and then a long. long finish. A small sample of this was kept until breakfast the following day when it had opened up and was showing magnificently. 96/100. Drunk 12-Oct-13 (and at breakfast on 13-Oct-13). Decanted 10 hours.