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On Thursday 27th June 2013 eleven regulars gathered in a crowded Bung Hole to give Mr Doty a break from Wimbledon, in the form of a 1966 horizontal. It’s a hard life.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1966 Fonseca;
• 1966 Taylor;
• 1966 Croft;
• 1966 Niepoort;
• 1966 Sandeman;
• 1966 Offley;
• 1966 Dow;
• 1966 Graham;
• 1966 Warre (probably);
• 1966 Gould Campbell;
• 1966 Warre;
• 1966 Quinta do Noval;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements;
• 1966 Château Cantenac Brown;
• 1966 Château Langoa Barton.

Sorry. I had about half a pound of very good valrhona chocolate I meant to bring to this. Oops. It's still in SW18.. Next time..

Photographed whilst the Croft was being decanted.

Photographed whilst the Croft was being decanted.

Photographed whilst the Croft was being decanted.

Photographed whilst the Croft was being decanted.

Photographed whilst the Croft was being decanted.

A splendid evening, with much juicy port. If there are identifying characteristics of ’66 VP, they seem to be raisins, and being lovely. I was very impressed. And the spread of voting was fairly indicative of the range of good juice: 1st equal with 11½ points were Fonseca and Graham a, edge behind with 10 was the Noval, an edge behind with 8½ were Croft and Niepoort, and an edge behind that with 8 was Gould Campbell, and an edge behind that with 6 was the Dow. And even no-points Offley was very fine. Much good port died that evening, and died heroically.

Part of the spread of voting was caused by evolution in the glass. Dow, the first to cross my lips, was fantastic at the start of the evening. But over time it became flabbier and less interesting. Others grew with time.

Disappointments? Taylor was corked; Sandeman was materially past its prime; and the known-to-be-Warre Warre did not show as well as it should. Two of these could still be drunk with pleasure.

We also had two 1966 Clarets, donated by the recently-departed griff. The Margaux, the Château Cantenac Brown, was big and full of structure and in wonderful shape. The St Julien, the BBR Château Langoa Barton, had become rather acidic.

jdaw1 wrote:A splendid evening, with much juicy port. If there are identifying characteristics of ’66 VP, they seem to be raisins, and being lovely. I was very impressed. And the spread of voting was fairly indicative of the range of good juice: 1st equal with 11½ points were Fonseca and Graham a, edge behind with 10 was the Noval, an edge behind with 8½ were Croft and Niepoort, and an edge behind that with 8 was Gould Campbell, and an edge behind that with 6 was the Dow. And even no-points Offley was very fine. Much good port died that evening, and died heroically.

Part of the spread of voting was caused by evolution in the glass. Dow, the first to cross my lips, was fantastic at the start of the evening. But over time it became flabbier and less interesting. Others grew with time.

Disappointments? Taylor was corked; Sandeman was materially past its prime; and the known-to-be-Warre Warre did not show as well as it should. Two of these could still be drunk with pleasure.

We also had two 1966 Clarets, donated by the recently-departed griff. The Margaux, the Château Cantenac Brown, was big and full of structure and in wonderful shape. The St Julien, the BBR Château Langoa Barton, had become rather acidic.

Gentlemen in England then a-bed, think themselves accursed they were not there

were there (un)noticeable differences between the dow-warre and the warre warre?

g-man wrote:were there (un)noticeable differences between the dow-warre and the warre warre?

Yes. See TN threads: Warre (probably) and Warre (definitely). Former was better.

jdaw1 wrote:We also had two 1966 Clarets, donated by the recently-departed griff. The Margaux, the Château Cantenac Brown, was big and full of structure and in wonderful shape. The St Julien, the BBR Château Langoa Barton, had become rather acidic.

By PM griff wrote:And judging by their fill levels I was expecting a reverse result. Proof again that it is really the case of good old bottles rather than good old wine. I'm pleased to hear that one of them at least managed to perform. 'Recently-departed' could also be interpreted euphemistically I think

A good evening; thanks to Chris for suggesting (good to finally meet you), RAYC and jdaw (and any others) for organising. Lots of good port, some very good indeed; For me the best were the Dow, Graham and Fonseca (others found their Dow to fade as time went on, I just found I had an empty glass so was unable to tell later on ), but aside from the corked Taylor, all was enjoyable. Thanks also to Griff for the two 1966 wines he had provided for with the food, one of which was good, the other not so, but a pleasant and generous bonus.

Of note was the quality of the Offley - while a softer style it was very enjoyable and better than I anticipated; The Noval was interesting with a noticeably different taste of strong dark blackberry (very tasty); The Niepoort was very interesting to try and credit/thanks to Rob for obtaining it for the session, but unfortunately did not show as well as it might have. Despite both Ben and Derek attempting to finish my glasses "because I had left" despite being stood in front of them, it was a good evening

Cracking show, chaps, and thanks to JDAW and RAYC for organizing. Was good to meet Phil and Danny, and always a pleasure to reconnect with the crew.

I thought the '66s put on a very good performance, with as tight a band of scores between first and 2nd to last as I can recall (the Taylor being excused for TCA). These are wines I think every port lover should own a few of, but they remain safely behind the 70s in their lushness, verve, and complexity, in my judgment. I also found these to be uniformly in a slow state of plateau/decline, whereas a number of the best 70s continue to develop favorably. Still, they generally possessed pleasing aromatics on the mature red/light brown end of the spectrum, and often had good acidity in the mouth with a fairly common profile of small red rasins/currants and menthol/mint influences.

My top three (Noval, Croft, Graham) excluded the Dow's, which had been the star of the first hour or so of the tasting, but even just before we broke for dinner I noticed it was starting to shake a bit. Kudos to AHB for noting originally that it was lacking structure this proved too true. Noble performances from the Gould and the Offley, two shippers often overlooked (at least here in America, and sometimes even by Management!). Everyone else seemed to like the Fonseca, but I must admit this wine really underwhelmed me. Not bad, but I've already forgotten what it tastes like. Would be curious when we organize this tasting again to have the same line up but serve the wines single-blind. woo woo.

Was great to see everyone, and I am pleased to be wearing my new cufflinks into the office.

Until next time
CSD

The disunity of our scoring clashes interestingly with the similarity of our narrative opinions.

My scores were rather perverse I think. I liked the Niepoort, and scored it first because it was somewhere that the other ports weren't. Not a proper reason, really, but there we are. I could have scored others, i could have split my scores, but under pressure I thought that the Fonseca and the Gould deserved it. I could have scored the wonderfully marmaladey Croft, or the Dow (like Phil I didn't have enough left to tell whether it deteriorated during the evening). Good food, good port and wine, a very educational and enjoyable evening, thanks everyone.

Review of the Evening

A very comprehensive set of 1966 Ports, communally provided by 11 Port lovers from both sides of the Atlantic Sea! Davy’s Bar & Grill (Bunghole) in the Holborn area of London provided us with a private tasting room as well as a table in an alcove of their dining room in the downstairs area.

Throughout our tasting, we continually revisited our Ports, sometimes picking up on more flavors. As preferences can be subjective, some of us had varying opinions on what we each voted on as the top ones we liked most. Among the ones I voted on that made it to the top 6 were Niepoort, Noval, Warre, and Graham.

The Ports that earned the greatest number of votes (that tied #1) were: Fonseca and Graham
#2: Noval
#3: Niepoort and Croft (tie)
#4: Graham Campbell
#5: Dow
#6: Warre

Many thanks for organizing this fine tasting, and it was a pleasure to see some familiar faces as well as to meet some of my fellow Portsmen in the UK.