ThePortForum.com

I posted this tonight on in response to a question from someone looking to put together a two-flight tasting for eight people in the USA for less than $100 per head...

[url=http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12364&p=66245#p66245]Here[/url] DRT wrote:One way of making your cash go a little further would be to use one of the bottles in both flights. The pours would be a fraction smaller for that one wine in each flight but it would be interesting to taste that same wine on the same night against the peers from its vintage and then again with its siblings from the same house. Fonseca 85 might be a good one to choose so that you could have a horizontal of Graham, Dow, Fonseca and Taylor 1985 and then a vertical of Fonseca 1970, 1985, 1997 and 2000.

This got me thinking about how this could be done properly. That is, without being constrained by American drinking limits

Firstly we need a new name for this format: An Intersection Tasting?

Imagine the scene at The RAF Club:

Flight 1: 14 x 1963 Vintage Ports, including Fonseca

Steak & Kidney Pudding

Flight 2: 14 Fonseca Vintages from 1927 to 1985, including 1963

The F63 would, of course, be a magnum.

The question to be answered on the evening is: Is Fonseca 1963 the best of its generation and the best of its house?

It might take some time for us to find THE best vintage port in history using this method as each one would obviously have to take a turn at being at the intersection

Thoughts?

I can imagine at least you and me with these 24 ports in the RAF Club searching for this....

Nice one. I believe we should try to schedule 2012 nicely with any tastings, but I will be available for any of this.

Axel

I call dibs on a seat on whatever tasting with fonseca is decided

We did a two-day tasting in New York, The ‘Emergency’ 1985 horizontal: 26th and 27th December 2007, the second day being some of the first day’s, but with one extra day in the decanter, and some extras.

Hi Derek,

sounds interesting. I would like to participate, but also i am potentially time constraint again in this year since I have to move house again.

regards

WS1

No, no, no, no. It's a terrible idea. No, no, no...

Have I protested enough to appear to be resisting? Just promise me that you will not try and make it a complete vertical and complete horizontal.

AHB wrote:Just promise me that you will not try and make it a complete vertical and complete horizontal.

I can promise not to make it a complete vertical and a complete horizontal with Hutcheson 1975 at the intersection.

Presumably you would need two mags of the '63. It would be rather disappointing if your "intersection port" didn't show well in the first flight - you'd then be hoping that it wouldn't be the best of the second flight...

Strikes me that it might be a good idea to try on a smaller scale as you initially recommended (eg: for a 10-person tasting - 4 bottle &1/2 mag horizontal and 4bottle &1/2 mag vertical), perhaps with the vertical being composed of a non-"first growth" house.

One that springs to mind would be basing around the GC'77 (i believe there are a few mags floating around...!), using eg: GC66, GC70, GC77, GC80 (esp. after g-man's recent review) and GC83, plus a nice '77 line-up...

I am unconvinced that this is an efficient use of bottles. Too much depends, as RAYC says, on the intersection bottle being top-notch.

A double- or triple- horizontal or vertical seems to offer many more possible comparisons, without the reliance on a single wine.

jdaw1 wrote:I am unconvinced that this is an efficient use of bottles. Too much depends, as RAYC says, on the intersection bottle being top-notch.

A double- or triple- horizontal or vertical seems to offer many more possible comparisons, without the reliance on a single wine.

Does this mean that jdaw1 and RAYC would not want a seat at the table for "The Grand Qunita do Noval Nacional 1963 Intersection Tasting"?

No. It means that if we have the bottles for that, they could be used more efficiently in a different arrangement.

Is it fair to say that this tasting idea is still in a developmental phase? We haven't progressed it yet, have we?