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In honour of the presence in London of Dr Dirk Bruns, people gathered at the The Crusting Pipe on Tuesday 3rd January 2012 to taste some 1977s. Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1977 Sandeman;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1977 Taylor;
• 1977 Gould Campbell;
• 1977 Niepoort;
• 1977 Morgan;
• 1977 Cálem;
• 1977 Delaforce;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

The extra glass, on the left side of the right page, below the Sandeman and above the Taylor, is the Delaforce.

The extra glass, on the left side of the right page, below the Sandeman and above the Taylor, is the Delaforce.

The extra glass, on the left side of the right page, below the Sandeman and above the Taylor, is the Delaforce.

Left to right: AHB; WS; Dr Dirk Bruns; RAYC; David A. Livingston.

A surprise visitation from AHB happily complimented an excellent evening, with six of the seven bottles showing well, in two cases after a delay. AHB brought a bottle blind, and nobody came near knowing that it was Delaforce.

Quotations of the evening, reproduced by permission, came from RAYC.
• ‟I look quite good in lederhosen.”
• ‟Lederhosen fits my legs quite nicely flattering for me.”

Upon reflection the following day, it might not have been quite so clever, post-tasting, for RAYC and I each to have had two pints of beer and a cigar.

I was impressed by how enjoyable these 77s were, as it is a vintage that i have previously found problematic. But we had some great port last night.

That said, the Niepoort, Delaforce and Sandeman already seem old and likely on the down-curve, and even the Taylor and Fonseca seem (to me) to be at peak maturity now - both were fantastic (particularly the Fonseca), but i do not get the impression of them needing more time (in the same way that i do when drinking F70, for instance). I find myself broadly in agreement with Chris Doty's assessment of the vintage here. It will be interesting to see how the 77s stack up to the 80s (particularly the still-youthful Symington 80s) in 10-15 years time...

Take nothing away from the Gould Campbell though - it was a fantastically deep colour by comparison to the others and much more tannic - if this had been blind, i certainly would not have put it in the same vintage! Was just a bit too closed on the night to do well in voting though - but shows that good bottles still have significant potential.

Niepoort, although light in colour, seems to require a reasonable decant time to come round and show at its best (consistent with this bottlefrom last year), whereas I actually thought that the Sandeman was most impressive initially before proceeding to fall apart a bit with extended time in glass (a phenomenon jdaw1 ascribed to tasting the F77 in the interim!).

On a personal note, i took the opportunity (via pints and cigars in Holborn) to complete my tour of the Smithfield Market late night cafes. I can announce, for the benefit of others who might be in need of a pre-bed "sober-up" snack, that the best bacon/egg butty available in that area can be found here.

NB good to meet Dirk!

RAYC wrote:On a personal note, i took the opportunity (via pints and cigars in Holborn) to complete my tour of the Smithfield Market late night cafes. I can announce, for the benefit of others who might be in need of a pre-bed "sober-up" snack, that the best bacon/egg butty available in that area can be found here

Did you complete the tour in one night, which would be extremely impressive, or was this the last place to try having visited others on needful occasions?

DRT wrote:

RAYC wrote:On a personal note, i took the opportunity (via pints and cigars in Holborn) to complete my tour of the Smithfield Market late night cafes. I can announce, for the benefit of others who might be in need of a pre-bed "sober-up" snack, that the best bacon/egg butty available in that area can be found here

Did you complete the tour in one night, which would be extremely impressive, or was this the last place to try having visited others on needful occasions?

The latter!

A very nice evening in The Crusting Pipe with excellent 1977s vintage ports. It was the perfect time to open some of these bottles to see how far the developement is. Some bottles need more time (e.g. Niepoort, Taylor) and other are now very drinkable and start to fade after some hours in the glass (Sandemann).

Thank you very much Rob for the perfect organisation.

Dirk

My overall impression of the ports we drank was that 1977 is a vintage which is very approachable and enjoyable today. None of the wines we tried struck me as having lots more to offer but the Gould Campbell troubled me - it wasn't corked but it was very unbalanced and ungainly. Perhaps it is going into its last shut phase and will emerge in 2-3 years as a lovely, mature and attractive wine but not this evening - at least in my opinion and I did seem to be in a minority of 1.

Looking at my scores, I also wonder if I was in a grumpy mood as they do seem remarkably low for a series of wines that I remember being very easy to enjoy. Perhaps that was the problem, they were easy and didn't have the subtleties that I love in mature port. Whatever the reason, I like the 1977 vintage and am happy to have a few bottles in the cellar. This tasting just confirmed that view.

Thanks to all for accommodating my unexpected arrival and for the good company - glad I escaped before the cigars and beer though!

It was a lovely evening indeed. All ports showed well and this is imho for 1977 ports a big success! Since 1977 was a year which produced very tannic ports they are very vulnerable to storage/transportation. On top I learned from Adrian Bridge that some of usual bt variation for 1977 ports that is experienced can be attributed to inconsitent quality of corks due to the cork industry being in disarray after the revolution in Portugal.
The best wine on the night for me was the Fonseca followed by the Niepoort and the controversial Gould Campell. On hind site I must say I would probaly swap this for the Taylor since even the last drops Gould Campell out of my glass showed a very closed port. The brittle label confirmed the bt was very well stored but should have probably decanted longer or we just should have waited several more years. Since I have a couple more bts from the same source here is the possibilty to investigate this again in the future.
The Fonseca showed great complexity and grip; in this condition it is clear why this port has such a reputation. Sadly due to its success in the press it was traded a lot and pristine stock like the bt we had is difficult to find!
The port that really struck me was the Delaforce. I had this before and liked it, but did not expect it to do so well in this line up. On top it did not fade in the glass!
The Sandemann was excellent to start with but faded away fairly quickly and left just a good port. Not the very attractive "juice" it was at the beginning of the tasting.
The Niepoort again gained in the glass and just got better and better. Excellent port!
The only slight disappointment on the evening was the Morgan; the bt we had I fear was flawed in whatever form. I had this a lot better from the same source.

regards

WS1

AHB wrote: Looking at my scores, I also wonder if I was in a grumpy mood as they do seem remarkably low for a series of wines that I remember being very easy to enjoy. Perhaps that was the problem, they were easy and didn't have the subtleties that I love in mature port.

The only one that really surprised me from your ratings was the Delaforce, which you rated lower than the Morgan.

This tasting has also spawned a discussion thread entitled Quantifying opacity in TNs.