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1970 Tasting in New York

Posted: 21:00 Fri 15 Feb 2008
by Alex Bridgeman
My latest trip is nearly over, celebrated in terrific style thanks to the kindness of Jay and the generosity of his friends, acquaintances and other port lovers who I met last night.

Jay raided his port collection and laid on a wonderful 1970 horizontal with 8 ports coming from his cellar. The line-up was completed by an ex-cellars Niepoort brought by Roy Hersh and a 1970 Nacional brought by Ted and his wife.

There were so many (more) firsts for me last night - my first Nacional 1970, my first Cachao Port, my first Santos Junior (Eric liked it, but I didn't) and the first Niepoort that I liked and enjoyed.

We had 10 different ports arranged in three flights. Flight one was:
Cachao, Santos Junior and Kopke. The Cachao was a very pleasant surprise, drinkable and perfectly respectable. The Santos Junior (from magnum) was disappointing to me but just seemed to hit all the right points for Eric. I loved the Kopke. This showed a lot of the features that I enjoy in a mature VP and was very elegant and approachable. Others, indeed most others, were less impressed.

The second flight was Delaforce, Niepoort and Noval. The Delaforce was a Delaforce; simple, mature and straightforward. Nothing wrong with it but never going to set the world on fire. The Niepoort was fabulous and was my wine of the night. It was thickly textured, full bodied and chock-full of ripe red fruit. Fabulous port and the first Niepoort that I have found I enjoyed. The Noval was light, simple but enjoyable. There are times when you want a port that you can drink while you concentrate on other things. This would be ideal.

The final flight was comprised of Noval Nacional, Graham, Taylor's Vargellas and Taylor. I loved the Nacional as I found it restrained and yet hinting at more to come. Others were less impressed and some were disappointed by the bottle - but I finished it off for them after the tasting. The things we're forced to do for our fellow port lovers! The Graham got rave reviews from everyone - except me! I felt it was closed and not showing well. I speculated whether this was an example of a port going through an intermediate closed phase before coming out the other side and being a refined and courteous English gentleman. The Vargellas was fabulous. Everthing that I could want from an elegant port; a nose of lavender, a thick texture, refined fruit and a fabulous aftertaste. I had a hard time separating this from the Niepoort to choose my wine of the night. Sadly, the Taylor was corked quite badly on the nose although it showed some of its potential when sipped.

These notes have all been written from memory. Hopefully, when I get back to the UK I will find where I have packed my notes and be able to post proper tasting notes on the Tasting Notes forum but I just want to sign off with a very big "thank you" to everyone who has helped to make this business trip to the US one of my most memorable!

You may not hear a great deal from me over the next few days. Apparently my wife has realised that I have seen more of Julian in the last three weeks than I have of her. I've promised her that as soon as his cellar is empty it will all be over between him and me ...

Re: 1970 Tasting in New York

Posted: 00:26 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by jdaw1
AHB wrote:Apparently my wife has realised that I have seen more of Julian in the last three weeks than I have of her. I've promised her that as soon as his cellar is empty it will all be over between him and me ...
There is nothing I can possibly say to that, except to be pedantic:
AHB wrote:Cachao
Cachão please, with the tilde. 

Posted: 00:30 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by DRT
Sounds like a fun night.

I hope the two of you will be happy together :wink:

Derek

1970 horizontal links

Posted: 00:42 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by jdaw1

Re: 1970 Tasting in New York

Posted: 11:30 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by Alex Bridgeman
jdaw1 wrote:There is nothing I can possibly say to that, except to be pedantic:
AHB wrote:Cachao
Cachão please, with the tilde.
Perhaps one day I will investigate how to produce an "a" with a tilde over it while using a BlackBerry, but I may also decide that life is too short.

Alex 

Posted: 11:48 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by Conky
Could this be your first tiff since getting together???

Hello, young lovers, where ever you are
I hope your troubles are few...

Only one† , but a biggie: finite cellar size

Posted: 17:19 Sat 16 Feb 2008
by jdaw1
Conky wrote:troubles
Only but a biggie: finite cellar size.


• Well, there are others, but let’s not distract from the poetry.

Photographs

Posted: 03:55 Sun 17 Feb 2008
by jfacciol
I can't seem to load jpgs but I can load the url for the site with the jpgs.

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare ... _=91743540

Photos

Posted: 17:33 Sun 17 Feb 2008
by jfacciol
Well, the Snapfish Album url I posted last night does not work either. It worked last night but today only gives one of 11 photos. I have edited the url from last night and posted another Snapfish url that is working right now and will check later to see if it still is working.

My guess is that you have to be signed into Snapfish for the url to work; therefore, you need a Snapfish account (which is free, of course).

Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to work around this problem so the viewer does not have to be signed in?

Snapfish is a pain.

Posted: 19:44 Sun 17 Feb 2008
by jdaw1
Snapfish is a pain. Email me the pictures and I’ll cope. I have my own website for this sort of thing.

Posted: 00:01 Mon 18 Feb 2008
by Roy Hersh
A big thank you to Jay for hosting this fun event and bringing some of us together again (Jay, Julian and I were at a tasting together 2 months ago) and Alex, Julian and I were at a 3 day Port-athon in Boston the prior week. It was great to meet some of Jay's friends and also to meet Ted and his lovely wife that I have emailed with but never met. This tasting was followed by two other Port events, although this was the best of the 3, and for that I thank Jay and for his hospitality and generosity too.

The 1970 tasting was interesting to say the least as I had never had a Santos Junior before (never even heard of it before) and anytime I can try something new, it is a distinct pleasure. Jay did a fantastic job of picking some more obscure wines of the vintage to add in along with some of the better known names.

The first flight was quite weak but interesting nonetheless and the Kopke took that heat by a country mile, imo. I still enjoyed trying the other two which I wouldn't doubt will be my only adventures with these bottlings, ever.

The 2nd flight was better and like Alex, I think the Niepoort stole the show of the 2nd flight, although I felt it was not worthy of POTN as he did. However, knowing that he never has enjoyed Niepoort VPs, I was very pleased to be able to change that perception, if only once.

The final round promise to be big, with some significant names. I really loved the Vargellas and agreed with Alex and I think we scored it identically. It is a fabulous example (only my 2nd timing having it) of what this beauty can achieve. The Nacional was enjoyable but was celarly not up to its usual stunning showing from this fine vintage. I've had it enough to know it pretty well, and it is one of the top six-eight bottlings of Nacional ever produced.

Sadly the Taylor suffered badly from TCA, but Julian still found a way to rate it above all other Ports that night!?!?!?! :shock: But the POTN for me was the gorgeous example and typical of the Graham's 1970, a superbly complex bottle and delicious youthful fruit with the beginnings of some secondary nuances.

I didn't say so that night, but I felt I had been ignorant in not looking over the lineup better than I did. I would have been happy to provide the 1970 Fonseca which was sorely missing as beyond the typical showing of the Nacional, it is the next greatest Port of the vintage. I really wish I had brought it along for others to try and apologize for this oversight.

Thanks again to Jay for allowing us to spend over 5 hours in his home slowly enjoying each and every one of the bottles in the lineup! A most enjoyable evening.

Re: Photos

Posted: 23:33 Tue 19 Feb 2008
by g-man
jfacciol wrote:Well, the Snapfish Album url I posted last night does not work either. It worked last night but today only gives one of 11 photos. I have edited the url from last night and posted another Snapfish url that is working right now and will check later to see if it still is working.

My guess is that you have to be signed into Snapfish for the url to work; therefore, you need a Snapfish account (which is free, of course).

Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to work around this problem so the viewer does not have to be signed in?
I have my own website too if you need a place to post pics