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Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 11:29 Fri 30 Mar 2012
by Alex Bridgeman
An interesting evening. We had (in my opinion) one shocking ruby that must have been a badly treated bottle since no self respecting producer would make such a wine and seven very respectable ruby reserves - my favourite being the Fonseca Terra Prima, where I just loved the purity of fruit. Also very respectable were the Noval Black, de la Rosa, Port Society and Cockburn Special Reserve. It was good to taste these semi-blind so that we did not know which Reserve was in which glass until we had tasted them all.

Sadly for these Ruby Reserves, we then had some fabulous mature vintage ports immediately afterwards which showed the difference in class that exists between a well made and enjoyable Ruby Reserve and a well made and exquisite mature vintage port - they are completely different wines (and price bands!).

The birthday ports we enjoyed were a fine Croft '66, a very youthful Fonseca '77, a monumental Graham '70, a splendid Warre '55, a respectable Rebello Valente '63, a delicious Malvedos '65 and a brown coloured Niepoort '59 colheita bottled in 1978. Splendid port indeed.

Links:

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 20:25 Fri 30 Mar 2012
by benread
One conclusion I reached was that my body seems less well able to deal with an amuse bouche such as this! None of the ruby reserves really stood out for me last night, but equally, none were offensive. In the interests of science I have (I think) the Cockburn Special Reserve remnants to try again tonight, in the belief extra decanting time may have softened it a little. More later.

As to the 'main course', it was excellent. The Malvedos 65 was lovely, as was the Graham 70. I drained all my glasses, so I guess they were all up to scratch!

Thank you everyone for the contributions. I do believe I need to retrospectively 'adopt' one of the Ruby Reserves. Ray and Rob seemed to be the providers of most, so he who shouts first can put up a bottle for retrospective adoption (ie a cash payment!)

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 00:39 Sun 01 Apr 2012
by Alex Bridgeman
Guesses and scores from the birthday tasting.

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Note that the scoring for the Ruby Reserves was lowest score = best port and not our traditional scoring arrangement. Minimum score was 8 and maximum score was 64.

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 00:52 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by Glenn E.
AHB wrote:Minimum score was 8 and maximum score was 64.
Please explain the scoring system in more detail. I see only 5 columns of scores for the Ruby Reserves and am thus confused by this statement. Would the minimum score not be 5 and the maximum 40?

Also, just to be certain, is TPF the Port Society's Finest Reserve?

Lastly, I would like to include your results in a Guest Corner article that I am writing for Roy's newsletter about the Ruby Reserve Taste-Offs that occurred worldwide. May I have your permission to do so?

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 07:14 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by RAYC
Glenn E. wrote:
AHB wrote:Minimum score was 8 and maximum score was 64.
Please explain the scoring system in more detail. I see only 5 columns of scores for the Ruby Reserves and am thus confused by this statement. Would the minimum score not be 5 and the maximum 40?

Also, just to be certain, is TPF the Port Society's Finest Reserve?

Lastly, I would like to include your results in a Guest Corner article that I am writing for Roy's newsletter about the Ruby Reserve Taste-Offs that occurred worldwide. May I have your permission to do so?
Scoring system was by rank 1-8, 1 being best.

Fine by me to include, but i don't want to presume on behalf of others who may have a different outlook. Out of interest, would there be any specific mention that some results were from a theportforum.com tasting?

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 17:23 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by Glenn E.
RAYC wrote:would there be any specific mention that some results were from a theportforum.com tasting?
I refuse to get involved in that squabble. None of the tastings are being "branded" in that way in my article - they are all simply "Ruby Reserve Taste-Off" events in WA, CA, NJ, and London, though I do mention that your event was simply the amuse bouche before a proper Vintage Port tasting.

I'd be happy to PM the London section to any of you who would like to see it before I submit the article for publication.

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 20:54 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by RAYC
Glenn E. wrote:
RAYC wrote:would there be any specific mention that some results were from a theportforum.com tasting?
I refuse to get involved in that squabble. None of the tastings are being "branded" in that way in my article - they are all simply "Ruby Reserve Taste-Off" events in WA, CA, NJ, and London, though I do mention that your event was simply the amuse bouche before a proper Vintage Port tasting.

I'd be happy to PM the London section to any of you who would like to see it before I submit the article for publication.
It was a question inviting a simple yes/no answer, not a squabble! :wink:

Is the article being used for commercial purposes (I.e. subscriber-only FTLOP newsletter) or will it be freely available for all to see on the FTLOP site?

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 21:34 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by Glenn E.
RAYC wrote:
Glenn E. wrote:
RAYC wrote:would there be any specific mention that some results were from a theportforum.com tasting?
I refuse to get involved in that squabble. None of the tastings are being "branded" in that way in my article - they are all simply "Ruby Reserve Taste-Off" events in WA, CA, NJ, and London, though I do mention that your event was simply the amuse bouche before a proper Vintage Port tasting.

I'd be happy to PM the London section to any of you who would like to see it before I submit the article for publication.
It was a question inviting a simple yes/no answer, not a squabble! :wink:
I have learned that any question regarding that particular issue is far from simple, usually through no fault of the asker or answerer. :wink: Nevertheless, I'd rather avoid it entirely if at all possible.
RAYC wrote: Is the article being used for commercial purposes (I.e. subscriber-only FTLOP newsletter) or will it be freely available for all to see on the FTLOP site?
I cannot give you a definitive answer. I'm writing the article for the FTLOP newsletter, but I cannot predict whether or not it will be one of the articles from the newsletter that Roy links to directly from the FTLOP home page. I've always thought that those articles are available freely to everyone, but it now occurs to me that since I'm usually logged in I might only be seeing the links because I am a subscriber.

I have no commercial interest in the article - I receive nothing other than author's credit for writing it. And I use the term "author" loosely... I make no claim to being a properly trained writer. :wink:

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 21:55 Mon 02 Apr 2012
by Alex Bridgeman
RAYC wrote:Is the article being used for commercial purposes (I.e. subscriber-only FTLOP newsletter) or will it be freely available for all to see on the FTLOP site?
Naughty boy; stop being mischevious!
Glenn E wrote:I refuse to get involved in that squabble. None of the tastings are being "branded" in that way in my article - they are all simply "Ruby Reserve Taste-Off" events in WA, CA, NJ, and London, though I do mention that your event was simply the amuse bouche before a proper Vintage Port tasting.
Quite right too! There is no squabble, just two different web sites one of which (TPF) is very much amateur and one (FTLOP) is run more professionally. And I don't feel that it would be right or beneficial for any of the ruby reserve tastings to be "branded" in your article.

For what it's worth, I am happy for you to include the results from the Ruby Reserve tasting in London in your article.

Are you happy that you understand the way in which we scored the ruby ports?

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 00:16 Tue 03 Apr 2012
by Glenn E.
AHB wrote:Are you happy that you understand the way in which we scored the ruby ports?
Yes, thank you. Rob's explanation was sufficient - I suspect your explanation was based on all 8 scheduled attendees arriving in time for the amuse bouche, which apparently didn't happen. I can only assume that 3 of your attendees were performing lifesaving emergency surgery or rescuing small children who had fallen into wells.

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 01:45 Tue 03 Apr 2012
by DRT
Glenn E. wrote:
AHB wrote:Are you happy that you understand the way in which we scored the ruby ports?
Yes, thank you. Rob's explanation was sufficient - I suspect your explanation was based on all 8 scheduled attendees arriving in time for the amuse bouche, which apparently didn't happen. I can only assume that 3 of your attendees were performing lifesaving emergency surgery or rescuing small children who had fallen into wells.
I can confirm that I was performing lifesaving surgery on a child who had fallen into a well :(

Re: Thu 29th March at The Bunghole - The Birthday Boys

Posted: 20:44 Tue 03 Apr 2012
by jdaw1
I was late for more tediously obvious work reasons. Sorry.