ThePortForum.com

Yesterday evening, a handful of us gathered in the Crusting Pipe to share a few glasses of port with StevieCage and RonnieRoots, who were both briefly in London. We ate well, were looked after properly and drank some fine ports. Between us we managed to bring two bottles of Graham '85 (both blind), Fonseca 1985 (blind), Niepoort 1977, Gould Campbell 1970, a half bottle of Bomfim 1998 and a bottle of Offley 1983. There was also a bottle of 2008 Californian table wine - but I didn't make a note of what that was.

More later...

That's because if you guys want proper table wines, you need to give me a ring when you visit the states

Links:
Review of the evening as a whole
1985 Graham (bottle 1)
1985 Graham (bottle 2)
1985 Fonseca
1983 Offley Boa Vista
1977 Niepoort
1970 Gould Campbell
1998 Dow quinta do Bomfim
Planning and arrangements

EDIT + the wine - Justin "Justification" 2008.

We had an excellent port. Then tasted the next, and it too was excellent. Repeat. Wonderful.

In [url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=44694#p44694]the arrangement thread[/url] RonnieRoots wrote:I understand the value of the placemats, it's just that I find it slightly discouraging to have a large amount of glasses in front of me. Makes it seem like work. I prefer one (maybe two) glasses, relaxed tasting and casual conversation.

So no placemats. But for most of us placemats are so embedded in how we taste that they were improvised. I laid glasses in rows of 3-2-3; and atop my TNs made and labelled a replica of pattern. AHB provided small sticky labels that were used by several people. Others did likewise. Even Ronnie ‘one (maybe two) glasses’ had one glass per port, with sticky labels. Conclusion: you can take take the placemats out of the tasting, but you can’t so easily get the placemats out of the people.

After my return to Oman last week, I immediately went on a camping trip, so therefore a somewhat belated reply. It was a wonderful evening, and great to see Julian and Alex again, and meet Rob for the first time. It was very satisfying to see that all the ports we brought showed well, quite unique.

I may have managed to keep the placemats out, but I didn't take into account that the TCP crew is so well trained that they provide enough glasses for an army regiment when a couple of TPF'ers come by to drink. End of story: I gave up.

Thanks all for a very pleasant evening, and special thanks to Rob for making the arrangements and making sure we wouldn't go hungry.

Cheers!
Ronald