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AHB organising, as PW now unable to attend (thanks Alex).

Date: Monday 9th February
Venue: The Green Room in The Boot & Flogger, 10-20 Redcross Way, London SE1 1TA, tel +44 20 7407 1184 (streetmap.co.uk, maps.google.co.uk, bing).
Theme: Port from the 1970s
People:

1. MPM;
2. JDAW;
3. AHB;
4. IDJ;
5. CPR;
6. RDA;
7. PW.

Alternative theme postponed for future use:
(1) Did Avery get it right? (Av63 vs F63, T63, S63; with other ?63 assuming >4 people)
Having never tried the Avery '63, this is an idea I have had for a while, but have been hesitant to suggest as yet as I don't have any of the 4 primary ports! However I do have other '63s I could bring along, if the idea was of interest and the initial four were covered.

Current draft of the placemats.

Date looks OK for me. For theme one I have a Cr63 handy at home. Have a few '70s handy which would work for theme two.

Subject to permission from SWMBO, yes please.

No ’63s to hand: help!

The date is in my diary, although I can't confirm yet whether I can attend.

But I have a thought - Hawkesmoor Restaurants offer a corkage rate of £5 per bottle (actually, £5 per cork) on Mondays. Is there any interest in investigating whether one of their restaurants might be interested in hosting us on the 9th Feb?

Avery also did their own blend in a number of other years, I've had their '66 in the past. We could widen the challenge to any years where we can get a bottle of Avery blended port! I have surprisingly few '63s on hand until I get myself organised with another visit to off-site storage - but that should be reasonably easy to manage during January. And I don't have very many '70s either! Only one at home (Graham).

I think I need to get myself better organised...

AHB wrote:But I have a thought - Hawkesmoor Restaurants offer a corkage rate of £5 per bottle (actually, £5 per cork) on Mondays. Is there any interest in investigating whether one of their restaurants might be interested in hosting us on the 9th Feb?

I'm always happy to try an new venue, though being out of town would not be likely to visit/check. For now I'll assume B&F but won't book until nearer the time - if in the meantime you are happy to drop by on of the Hawkesmoor restaurants and all seems suitable, then please feel free to book and let us know; otherwise I'll be interested to see what the B&F is like.

AHB wrote:Avery also did their own blend in a number of other years, I've had their '66 in the past. We could widen the challenge to any years where we can get a bottle of Avery blended port! I have surprisingly few '63s on hand until I get myself organised with another visit to off-site storage - but that should be reasonably easy to manage during January. And I don't have very many '70s either! Only one at home (Graham).

We could certainly open it further to include other Avery years and the bottles they were formed from, if we know them and had enough people; or we could do a different year from '63 on similar basis; At the moment, no owner of an Avery bottle has offered to put it forward (I was too slow and missed out at FV last year), so we may well be defaulting to blind 70's - not a hardship, though I'd like to do the Avery idea at some future date if it is not viable at this time.

I'm up for this and either theme is fine by me (eg I can lay my hands on T63, G63 and D63).

Since posting this suggestion I see that an Avery '63 was opened at the Dr Dirk tasting just before New Year; I'm therefore going to set the theme for 9th Feb will be "Blind 70's" and save the "was Avery right" theme for a later date.

Alex - you mentioned a possible alternate venue you would like to try; I have not yet booked the B+F (indeed I have not checked if they are available as yet) and would be happy for us to try Hawkesmoor if one of their venues might suit; does anyone have any experience of them?

AHB wrote:Hawkesmoor Restaurants offer a corkage rate of £5 per bottle (actually, £5 per cork) on Mondays. Is there any interest in investigating whether one of their restaurants might be interested in hosting us on the 9th Feb?

There is a Hawkesmoor very close to my office and about 100 yards from the Davy's used for recent tastings. They have a private room in the basement that would be ideal for a large tasting. They also have the best rump steak I have ever tasted.

Unfortunaately i am out of the country from the previous Friday for a couple of weeks

DRT wrote:

AHB wrote:Hawkesmoor Restaurants offer a corkage rate of £5 per bottle (actually, £5 per cork) on Mondays. Is there any interest in investigating whether one of their restaurants might be interested in hosting us on the 9th Feb?

There is a Hawkesmoor very close to my office and about 100 yards from the Davy's used for recent tastings. They have a private room in the basement that would be ideal for a large tasting. They also have the best rump steak I have ever tasted.

Would you be able to drop by their place and see whether they would be willing to accommodate us under their £5 Mondays deal?

AHB wrote:Would you be able to drop by their place and see whether they would be willing to accommodate us under their £5 Mondays deal?

Will do.

Sounds good, and the date now works

Thus count me in!

Has anyone had the opportunity to drop in and check venue suitability and book the Hawkesmoor? If not then tonight I will try and book the B+F for us on this occasion (which would fine, as I've not been there yet and would be interested to try it, though just as happy to accomodate other's preferences to try a Hawkesmoor and even more happy to .eat highly-rated steak)

Sorry, haven't managed to get there yet so suggest B&F for this one.

Further work issues have arisen which unfortunately means that I'm no longer going to be able to make it down to London on the evening of the 9th Jan Currently we have a small attendee list with several provisional; at present therefore, I have NOT booked the B&F as we might only be 2 or 3.

If people still want to go ahead, please could someone offer to take ownership?

I'm now a definite for this so I'm happy to take the lead.

JDAW - are you still provisional?

All - any dissent from a theme of vintage port from 1970?

AHB wrote:JDAW - are you still provisional?

All - any dissent from a theme of vintage port from 1970?

I have permission. Thunderbirds are go.

I don’t have a ’70 within reach. Could adopt, or could bring a suitable other bottle.

AHB wrote:I'm now a definite for this so I'm happy to take the lead.

Thanks Alex; Could an admin please alter the ownership of the first post to AHB if that is possible, please?

AHB wrote:All - any dissent from a theme of vintage port from 1970?

Sounds good. Blind or sighted?

flash_uk wrote:

AHB wrote:All - any dissent from a theme of vintage port from 1970?

Sounds good. Blind or sighted?

It seems that I don't have a great deal of port from the 1970 vintage at home or easy to get at before Monday, so I have taken the unilateral decision to relax the theme to now be "Port from the 1970s".

We'll do this blind, then we can have some fun.

AHB wrote: It seems that I don't have a great deal of port from the 1970 vintage at home or easy to get at before Monday, so I have taken the unilateral decision to relax the theme to now be "Port from the 1970s".

We'll do this blind, then we can have some fun.

Very good. That opens up more possibilities!

Placemats added to first post.

Thank you for the placemats. I will print these on Monday.

AHB wrote:I will print these on Monday.

Monday week. Don’t print early.

Tentatively in.