12 October - 55 @ 55 Tasting

[Alex Bridgeman]

Some minor updates made to the wines being brought.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Another wine added to the list.

[Alex Bridgeman]

In the first post of this thread I list out all the wines and people who are attending this offline. There are a couple of people who have yet to decide what to bring, and one of them is only a tentative attendee as he would be flying in from Canada to take part.

So I would like opinions on whether we should look to add some more bottles to the current line up. Currently we have:
- Adam (which is probably Royal Oporto)
- Buckingham Palace Factory House Blend
- Cockburn
- Ferreira
- Fonseca
- Gonzalez Byass
- Graham
- Martinez
- McKenzie
- Offley
- Quinta do Noval
- Sandeman
- Taylor
- Warre

We could add any of the following to the line up for roughly £15 per person, per bottle:
Butler Nephew, Croft, Dow or Rebello Valente

So far, the only costs we have committed to are private arrangements for adoption of bottles plus the cost of the venue (which is about £40-50 per person). Does anyone have any thoughts or comments on whether we should add to the existing list? In the absence of a barrage of positive comments, I will leave the line up as it is at 1 bottle per person and not incur an extra cost on behalf of the team.

Incidentally, if someone has to drop out at the last minute we do not have any reserves. Does anyone have a guest who would be interested in coming along if a space opened up?

Alex

[DRT]

We could add any of the following to the line up for roughly £15 per person, per bottle:
Butler Nephew, Croft, Dow or Rebello Valente

I vote for adding the Dow and Croft but not the other two.

[Glenn E.]

I would not mind adding 1 or 2 bottles, preferably the Croft and Dow in that order. But I am also happy with the current lineup and will not be disappointed if it remains as-is.

[benread]

I would vote for some additional 'insurance' in terms of extra bottles. We know from experience that 1 per person can be marginal!

[DRT]

We could add any of the following to the line up for roughly £15 per person, per bottle:
Butler Nephew, Croft, Dow or Rebello Valente

I vote for adding the Dow and Croft but not the other two.

I am already starting to feel guilty about denying the Rebello Valente and Butler Nephew their chance to sit alongside their peers

[Axel P]

Alex,

since this will be an extremely good tasting my voting would be to bring in as many bottles of 55s as we can achieve. Knowing that this tasting will be more expensive, I would understand if others would vote not to.

Axel

[Alex Bridgeman]

Replies on adding bottles received so far have been noted. There seems to be a clear consensus to add at least two, but no clear consensus yet whether to add as many as possible.

FOOD
The menu on the evening will be exactly the same as we had last time I was at the RAF Club. That is:
Pea and Mint Soup
Steak, Kidney and Mushroom Pudding with roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables
Sherry Trifle
Coffee

Anyone who would prefer a vegetarian option or who has other dietary requirements, please let me know.

Alex

[DRT]

I vote for adding the Dow and Croft

I would not mind adding ... bottles

I would vote for ... extra bottles.

I vote for adding the ... Rebello Valente and Butler Nephew

There seems to be a clear consensus to add ... as many as possible.

That looks like an overwhelming majority in favour of adding all four

[Alex Bridgeman]

That looks like an overwhelming majority in favour of adding all four

Who votes for the vegetarian option for DRT?

[jdaw1]

First draft of placemats.

• +D, +Cr, +BN, +RV.
• Flighting needs work.
• Unfortunately I don’t have the exact cut of Garamond that was designed in 1955, but the substitute will have to suffice.
• What is the first name of MTD?
• Includes decanter labels and bottle labels, the latter to be printed onto the correct side of Ryman product 0220013460.
• Also includes pre-pour sheets, and people names.
• Mckenzie or McKenzie? Please provide evidence. Show your working.

[benread]

[*]Mckenzie or McKenzie? Please provide evidence. Show your working.[/list]

My notes show Mackenzie but as the bottles are buried away under the stairs in my 'cellar' I have no easy way of verifying that for a few days at least. Uncle Tom may be able to help as he supplied the bottles to me.

[jdaw1]

When you can please post a picture.

The picture might inform the book, so please show the whole label.

[DRT]

Mckenzie or McKenzie? Please provide evidence. Show your working.

Oporto, Old & New by Charles Sellers 1899, page 245, has it as Mackenzie.
Many books by A. L. Simon have it as Mackenzie.
Port, by Rupert Croft-Cooke has it as Mackenzie.
Other books that I own all have it as Mackenzie.

I think it's Mackenzie.

[jdaw1]

I think it's Mackenzie.

Which has the happy merit of agreeing with my spreadsheet. Official abbreviation shortened to ‟Mk”.

Updated draft of placemats.

• Flighting still needs work.
• What is the first name of MTD?
• Includes decanter labels and bottle labels, the latter to be printed onto the correct side of Ryman product 0220013460.

[Alex Bridgeman]

What is the first name of MTD

It is Markus

[jdaw1]

Updated draft of placemats.

• Flighting still needs work.

[Glenn E.]

That looks like an overwhelming majority in favour of adding all four

Who votes for the vegetarian option for DRT?

Cabbage only, methinks.

In all seriousness, if we add all 4 the tasting will have grown too large. I'm fine with adding 1 or 2 of the bottles, but even that will be sorely testing my ability to give these old Ports their due respect.

[DRT]

Having reflected on this I am changing my vote to stick with the bottles already listed in the first post of this thread and not add any more. 1955 VP deserves to be given a chance of being tasted by a collection of palates capable of doing so.

Derek

[jdaw1]

The placemats would look more elegant with fifteen rather than fourteen, so I am unilaterally deciding to keep the Dow.

Updated draft of placemats.

• +D.
• ”“Cr, ”“BN, ”“RV.
• Flighting needs work.

[DRT]

The placemats would look more elegant with fifteen rather than fourteen, so I am unilaterally deciding to keep the Dow.

I can live with that logic, especially as 15 is a Quadro Prime, which makes the solution both aesthetically and mathematically elegant.

[jdaw1]

Careful with that reasoning: sixteen is both 2^4 and 4^2, and is the only integer expressible as n^m = m^n with n, m ∈ ℕ.

Then seventeen, ah, now you’re talking, as a heptadecagon is one of very few constructible regular polygons. (Also 3, 5, 257 and 65537, the last two being generous for a single flight.)

[Alex Bridgeman]

Will you two please behave. This is a public forum!

Bottle numbers - from the views and comments offered so far, I have decided that we will limit the tasting to 15 bottles of 1955 vintage port. This will make the cost per person £65 plus a bottle of port. I will shortly send an email to everyone asking for money to be transferred to my bank account.

Flights - I don't want to taste all 15 bottles in a single flight. As a starting suggestion, I propose to have Blockbusters before dinner and Elegance after dinner. This would mean before dinner we have:
- Buckingham Palace Blend
- Dow
- Fonseca
- Graham
- Taylor
- Warre

And after dinner we have (split between British and Portuguese shippers):
- Cockburn
- Mackenzie
- Offley
- Sandeman

- Adam (which is probably Royal Oporto)
- Ferreira
- Gonzalez Byass
- Martinez
- Noval

Any comments or thoughts on my proposed flights?

Alex

[jdaw1]

Factory House Blends have had a reputation for being made of non-first-rank components. So it’s odd to have that in the ‘blockbusters’. Should it move to the post-dinner British shippers?

Cockburn’s reputation, or at least pricing, was excellent until the 1960s. (My most recent C55, pre-TPF website so no TN here, was excellent.) Move to the ‘blockbusters’?

It’s a shame to have lost the aesthetic pleasure of the 5-5-5 split.