The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

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benread
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The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by benread »

In my designated capacity as official organiser of last nights affair, I guess it is my responsibility to initiate the review of proceedings. I will post links to tasting notes later.

The ports were:

Adams 1963 (AHB)
Noval 1970 (Ben MHR)
Sandeman 1945 (CG)
Dow 1977 (DRT)
Grahams 1977 (JGH)

The eagle eyed amongst you will spot that Christopher and myself both managed to slip slightly from the agreed theme although I did claim poetic licence!

The theme worked remarkably well and there was general consensus it could be reused with different words - PORT being Alex's suggestion!

My own notes were lost en route home, so my general observations are limited to what today's fuzzy brain can remember!

Portal restaurant: excellent bit of beef, generally considered to most likely be to the liking of Uncle Tom!

The wines were all enjoyable and the Sandeman 1945 was considered an acceptable offering from Christopher having not otherwise bothered to read the theme! My own favourite was the Adams by a narrow margin from the Sandeman.
Ben
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jdaw1
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by jdaw1 »

CG is known to be generous in his sharing of his stash of worthwhile port he can be forgiven.
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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

It was a remarkably relaxed and enjoyable occasion, with great food (wonderful crab cake starter and a super bit of rib of beef to follow), excellent service and the use of the conservatory for the tasting after dinner. I just managed to make my 11:20 train from Waterloo, it is amazing how quickly a taxi can get from Clerkenwell to the South Bank!

I will try to post tasting notes when I get round to catching up on all the notes I owe the site, but for the moment my two line summaries from memory are:

Adams 1963 - the best showing of the five bottles I've opened in the last two years. Very advanced, pale and tawny in colour and in nature but still with lovely citrus and marmalade flavours all through the palate and aftertaste. Quite delicious.

Noval 1970 - a little disjointed despite having been decanted in the morning with plenty of fruit and plenty of structure, but doing their own separate things. Not bad, but not a great example of a '70 port.

Sandeman 1945 - to my great shame, I guessed that this was a good shipper from a recent but weaker vintage - a Croft 1975. It was lovely, well integrated and with a good streak of ripe acidity. It's only problem was the short decant that we had to give it. This was the first bottle to be empty!

Dow 1977 - even after a 15 hour decant, this was still too disjointed to be showing at its best. I guessed this to be a Dow 1970, so I'm not too ashamed of that one. This will be a great port but needs another 5-10 years to be worth taking one out of the cellar.

Graham 1977 - a great port but this was not a fair showing. The bottle was below par, so this came out to be a decent Graham (I guessed Graham '75) but not with the completeness that I would have expected from the '77.

Overall, another thoroughly enjoyable evening in the company of fellow port lovers, drinking fine wine and gossiping about the world and the way to put it right! I can't wait for the next offline.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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jdaw1
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by jdaw1 »

AHB wrote:Overall, another thoroughly enjoyable evening in the company of fellow port lovers, drinking fine wine and gossiping about the world and the way to put it right! I can't wait for the next offline.
A great summary of why these things are so good.
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DRT
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by DRT »

An excellent evening indeed. The food was top notch and accompanied by a fine Portal Reserva 2005. A note for the future is that the conservatory room at Portal is not the best place for a tasting due to it being partly outside and lit by the equivalent of 4 candles*. Apologies for my last minute interference in the organisation, we should have stayed at the dining table.

My notes are not woth me so will be posted later. WOTN for me was undoubtedly the Sandeman 1945 - I think I guessed Taylor 1955. I managed to nail the Noval 1970 but given the available clues this had less to do with what I tasted than it did with a process of elimination.

Thanks to Ben for organising the evening and to all for supplying a varied and enjoyable array of wines.

Derek

PS: One of our group upheld that fine old :tpf: tradition of spending a few minutes in deep meditation towards the end of the evening. I have pictures :lol:

* I wonder if JDAW remembers the joke?
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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JacobH
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by JacobH »

jdaw1 wrote:
AHB wrote:Overall, another thoroughly enjoyable evening in the company of fellow port lovers, drinking fine wine and gossiping about the world and the way to put it right! I can't wait for the next offline.
A great summary of why these things are so good.
Absolutely. This was my first visit to Portal, and certainly will not be my last. Although it's not the bargin of TCP's mid-week theatre menu, the food is excellent, the staff are great, and they own huge numbers of Quinta do Portal IVDP-issue glasses which we could utilise. Also, after Christopher and Alex left, we were offered some 97 Portal, which was a nice touch (even if it was somewhat out-of-its-depth in the company of the other Ports left on the table).

On the night, I think the Adams was showing the best, but it's certainly something to be drinking up. It also, impressively, fitted all three criteria for the tasting! It was closely followed by the Sandeman which was also excellent. Doing the tasting semi-blind was fun, though it's interesting we kept recoursing to guessing the great shipper/weaker vintage combination, (I think most of us guessed 1975 for a least one bottle).

I think we also found another way of doing completely blind, taste-only testing: the conservatory is heated by one of those radiant warmers which emits a lovely red light, making working out the colour of what you are drinking impossible!
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by jdaw1 »

DRT wrote:* I wonder if JDAW remembers the joke?
I know that he doesn’t. Please remind.
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DRT
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by DRT »

jdaw1 wrote:
DRT wrote:* I wonder if JDAW remembers the joke?
I know that he doesn’t. Please remind.
4 candles = Fork Handles: Two Ronnies circa 1970's - discussed at The F Plan offline.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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DRT
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by DRT »

I have created the TN threads and inserted links in the first post in this thread.

AHB - I have quoted your brief TN's from this thread - please feel free to elaborate :wink:
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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benread
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by benread »

DRT wrote:I have created the TN threads and inserted links in the first post in this thread.

AHB - I have quoted your brief TN's from this thread - please feel free to elaborate :wink:
Thank you. I have been home alone in sole charge of 4 month old!
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by Glenn E. »

benread wrote:Thank you. I have been home alone in sole charge of 4 month old!
That is far too young for Port, it'll need at least a couple of decades to mature. :wink:
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by JacobH »

DRT wrote:PS: One of our group upheld that fine old :tpf: tradition of spending a few minutes in deep meditation towards the end of the evening. I have pictures :lol:
It appears the member in question has either forgotten or is keeping quiet. Post the pictures! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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Re: The 20th November London "Old (30+) blind initial" offline

Post by benread »

I suspect I may be the guilty party! I have a picture of Edward in similar pose from last weekend. Like father, like son as they say!
Ben
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