The Doty Cup: 2013
Posted: 21:51 Tue 19 Feb 2013
It was my pleasure to host the inaugural Doty Cup at the Bunghole in Holborn, with operational/logistical support provided by AHB, and placemats via JDAW/RAYC.
The Doty Cup is intended as an annual event seeking to identify the most awesome member of the London-based TPF community. This year's winner, Rob, exemplifies the ideals upon which the Doty Cup is founded, and he stormed to victory with ~400% of the point total of his nearest rival.
We served 12 glasses to each guest, double blind, in 6 flights of 2. Each pair had something connecting them (shipper, vintage, style, etc), and were intended to be a combination of wines which the group had recently tasted (e.g., magnums of the 1980 and 1985 Dow), and those potentially never to be consumed again (57 Val de Mendiz, ?? Taylor, etc).
There were several non-standard rules applied to the tasting, which include:
- No communication about the wines of any kind is permitted during the tasting (to avoid 'group think')
- In lieu of wine-talk, each guest is asked to give a semi-formal presentation (~5 minutes) on a topic on which he has some special level of knowledge
- The trophy (Rob, can we have a picture once it has been engraved with "2013 - Rob Coombes"?) is awarded to the person who's combined score (across wine guesses, presentation, and quality/completeness/originality of notes) is highest.
- The trophy cannot be won by the some person in consecutive years (as such, RAYC will be asked to help arrange the 2014 tasting, as Alex was ineligible from the 2013 tasting having filled that capacity)
Overall, I found that the wines showed incredibly well, especially the 45T, 57Fv and the ??T. The 67N also deserves recognition, but was just a half-step off the pace, in my view.
Neither tawny was remarkable, but I thought it was fun to drink two 20YRs separated by 30+ years in bottle.
While I was hoping the Noval and the Nacional 87s would be stars, neither really seemed special to me -- possibly owing to lack of sufficient bottle age / aeration, and possibly also just to the fact that they aren't especially good. Still, it was great to have them side-by-side -- a rare treat.
I also enjoyed the fact that only one taster (Derek), correctly identified that the last flight contained identical wines as the penultimate flight. It was especially amusing considering that both bottles were consumed by the group in the very room only a few weeks prior.
A complete list of wines (with various identifiers) is below. A smashing evening in my book (before I mention that Hugh Grant was at the bar and later occupied the room adjacent to ours!).
Already looking to "The Return of the Cup" in 2014!
Flight 1
* 1945 Taylor (#3, Cherish Port Left)
* ???? Taylor (#4, Cherish Port Right)
Flight 2
* 20Y Niepoort Tawny, bottled 1975 (#8, Moist Left)
* 20Y Niepoort Tawny, bottled 2008 (#6, Moist Right)
Flight 3
* 1957 Fonseca Val de Mendiz, Oport bottled 1960 (#9, Loud Left)
* 1967 Quinta do Noval (#10, Loud Right)
Flight 4
* 1987 Quinta do Noval (#5, Single Left)
* 1987 Quinta do Noval Nacional (#11, Single Right)
Flight 5
* 1985 Dow magnum (#1, Risqué Left)
* 1980 Dow magnum (#7, Risqué Right)
Flight 6
* 1980 Dow magnum (#12, Ebullient Left)
* 1985 Dow magnum (#2, Ebullient Right)
Cheers
Chris
The Doty Cup is intended as an annual event seeking to identify the most awesome member of the London-based TPF community. This year's winner, Rob, exemplifies the ideals upon which the Doty Cup is founded, and he stormed to victory with ~400% of the point total of his nearest rival.
We served 12 glasses to each guest, double blind, in 6 flights of 2. Each pair had something connecting them (shipper, vintage, style, etc), and were intended to be a combination of wines which the group had recently tasted (e.g., magnums of the 1980 and 1985 Dow), and those potentially never to be consumed again (57 Val de Mendiz, ?? Taylor, etc).
There were several non-standard rules applied to the tasting, which include:
- No communication about the wines of any kind is permitted during the tasting (to avoid 'group think')
- In lieu of wine-talk, each guest is asked to give a semi-formal presentation (~5 minutes) on a topic on which he has some special level of knowledge
- The trophy (Rob, can we have a picture once it has been engraved with "2013 - Rob Coombes"?) is awarded to the person who's combined score (across wine guesses, presentation, and quality/completeness/originality of notes) is highest.
- The trophy cannot be won by the some person in consecutive years (as such, RAYC will be asked to help arrange the 2014 tasting, as Alex was ineligible from the 2013 tasting having filled that capacity)
Overall, I found that the wines showed incredibly well, especially the 45T, 57Fv and the ??T. The 67N also deserves recognition, but was just a half-step off the pace, in my view.
Neither tawny was remarkable, but I thought it was fun to drink two 20YRs separated by 30+ years in bottle.
While I was hoping the Noval and the Nacional 87s would be stars, neither really seemed special to me -- possibly owing to lack of sufficient bottle age / aeration, and possibly also just to the fact that they aren't especially good. Still, it was great to have them side-by-side -- a rare treat.
I also enjoyed the fact that only one taster (Derek), correctly identified that the last flight contained identical wines as the penultimate flight. It was especially amusing considering that both bottles were consumed by the group in the very room only a few weeks prior.
A complete list of wines (with various identifiers) is below. A smashing evening in my book (before I mention that Hugh Grant was at the bar and later occupied the room adjacent to ours!).
Already looking to "The Return of the Cup" in 2014!
Flight 1
* 1945 Taylor (#3, Cherish Port Left)
* ???? Taylor (#4, Cherish Port Right)
Flight 2
* 20Y Niepoort Tawny, bottled 1975 (#8, Moist Left)
* 20Y Niepoort Tawny, bottled 2008 (#6, Moist Right)
Flight 3
* 1957 Fonseca Val de Mendiz, Oport bottled 1960 (#9, Loud Left)
* 1967 Quinta do Noval (#10, Loud Right)
Flight 4
* 1987 Quinta do Noval (#5, Single Left)
* 1987 Quinta do Noval Nacional (#11, Single Right)
Flight 5
* 1985 Dow magnum (#1, Risqué Left)
* 1980 Dow magnum (#7, Risqué Right)
Flight 6
* 1980 Dow magnum (#12, Ebullient Left)
* 1985 Dow magnum (#2, Ebullient Right)
Cheers
Chris