Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston, February 2008

What happened?
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14879
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston, February 2008

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Over the past weekend, we managed to pull a small group of port lovers together in Boston to share in a vertical of Croft, one of the port houses that I have not drunk very much of in the past but one of the houses that Sean C very much likes. Attending were Sean C, Moses B, JDAW, myself, Roy Hersh, Andy V, Joe M and Rahul S.

We drank our way through several ports on the Friday in preparation for the main event and finished off gently on Sunday afternoon with three bottles of port and one of madeira. Tasting notes for all of the ports that I drank on the Friday and Sunday are now on the tasting note forum.

The main event started at 1pm on Saturday and finished at 1am on Sunday. We drank our way through the following vintages of Croft:
1985
1977
1970 (from magnum)
1966
1963
1960
1955
1945
1935
1933
1927
1924
1920
1917
1912
1896

Key highlights for me were that the 1933 was a forgery and had a T-stopper in it! The 1960 and 1935 were surprisingly good, the 1927 was the best of them all in my opinion (closely followed by the 1924) but none were really weak. Even the 1896, although a little dried out, was not a disgrace and was quite enjoyable. Andy V has promised to write up a guest corner article for a forthcoming FTLOP newsletter so I won't spoil too much of his article by going in to too much detail.

However, it was terrific to see these people again and to share some remarkably good port with them all. Special thanks to Sean for organising us; to Julian for carrying half of the port we drank from the UK so that I didn't have to; to Andy for flying across the country to meet up with me and to Roy for also flying across the country with a bottle of Nacional in his hand.

It was a great way for me to spend what could have been a bit of a miserable weekend away on business. Thanks all.

Edit by jdaw1 in July 2015, adding links to: TPF review thread; FTLoP commentary; FTLoP planning thread; placemats.
Last edited by Alex Bridgeman on 03:26 Wed 13 Feb 2008, edited 1 time in total.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Post by Andy Velebil »

What Alex missed was thursday night and a rare Niepoort amoung a couple of others...more later.
User avatar
DRT
Fonseca 1966
Posts: 15779
Joined: 23:51 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Chesterfield, UK
Contact:

Post by DRT »

This sounds like a blast and I'm sorry I missed it. I need to persuade my employer to join forces with AHB's company so that I can join in on this sort of international business travel :wink:

Nice to see you better dressed than when we last met Sean

Image

For those who haven't met him -that really is Sean, not his Great Great Great Grandfather Sean "Quick Draw" C of wild west fame :lol:

Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14879
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Derek T. wrote:Image

For those who haven't met him -that really is Sean, not his Great Great Great Grandfather Sean "Quick Draw" C of wild west fame :lol:
That's not what I was told. I understood this to be the only picture in the world of the Marquis de Croft, taken around the same time as the 1896 ports were being vinified.

Have I been deceived?
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Post by Andy Velebil »

No Alex, you have not been. He was graceous enough to return from The Beyond to lead us on a great tour of his wines. :lol:
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

[url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=10079#10079]Here[/url] AHB wrote:Andy V has promised to write up a guest corner article for a forthcoming FTLOP newsletter so I won't spoil too much of his article by going in to too much detail.
Please could the assistant to the creator speak to this matter? If a TPF admin were to request that something not be posted on FTLOP, what would happen? Should I delay my pictures and TNs—with commensurate loss of topicality—or not? Roy: guidance from you would also be welcomed.
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14879
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

I may have missed something, but I wasn't aware of any request not to post tasting notes on the Crofts. However, as both a reader and a Guest Corner article writer, I feel the these articles tend to be more fun to read when they are fresh and have not been previewed on a forum.

I've left my Croft notes off the forum to give Andy or Sean a chance to write their article but I'm happy to post if they would prefer me to.

Alex
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Roy has replied requesting that they be double-posted,

Post by jdaw1 »

Roy has replied requesting that they be double-posted, with which—of course— I’m happy to oblige.
User avatar
KillerB
Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
Posts: 2425
Joined: 22:09 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Sky Blue City, England

Post by KillerB »

That seems like good manners to me.

It doesn't seem to be a specific TPF organised event, which may have been different. We can wait.
Port is basically a red drink
User avatar
mosesbotbol
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
Posts: 598
Joined: 19:54 Wed 18 Jul 2007
Location: Boston, USA

Post by mosesbotbol »

Amazing weekend. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all top notch all you could drink port nights.
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Apologies for the delay in posting the pictures.
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23613
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Croft Vertical Tasting in Boston

Post by jdaw1 »

Image
Post Reply