Review of the NY ACPT tasting

[g-man]

Found Here

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1978 Veuve Cliquot
1973 Dom Perignon
1985 Dom Perignon
1963 Taylor
1965 Taylor Vargellas
1966 Taylor
1967 Taylor Vargellas
1968 Taylor Vargellas
1969 Taylor Vargellas
1970 Taylor
1977 Taylor
1983 Taylor
1985 Taylor
1994 Taylor
1995 Taylor Vargellas

[Glenn E.]

Another fantastic tasting in New York. Jeff and Josh did an excellent job as usual - they make the whole process look terribly easy though I know that it us anything but.

My first taste of aged Champagne was a revelation. I'm normally not fond of Champagne, but these were excellent and I very much enjoyed them. Thanks to Jeff and friends for providing them!

My Port of the Night was the 1994 but it was followed closely by the 1970. After that I felt there was a significant drop off to several, out if which I picked the 1969 for 3rd. The 1967 was the most interesting due to a very strong wintergreen note to go along with the violets.

The food was also superb, though I feel that I picked the wrong appetizer. My risotto was very good, but Sandy's crab cakes looked even better.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[g-man]

Another fantastic tasting in New York. Jeff and Josh did an excellent job as usual - they make the whole process look terribly easy though I know that it us anything but.

My first taste of aged Champagne was a revelation. I'm normally not fond of Champagne, but these were excellent and I very much enjoyed them. Thanks to Jeff and friends for providing them!

My Port of the Night was the 1994 but it was followed closely by the 1970. After that I felt there was a significant drop off to several, out if which I picked the 1969 for 3rd. The 1967 was the most interesting due to a very strong wintergreen note to go along with the violets.

The food was also superb, though I feel that I picked the wrong appetizer. My risotto was very good, but Sandy's crab cakes looked even better.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

yea i told the gm that thier "risotto" tasted awfully like barley to me. But at least there were real lobster chunks in there

my favorite was surprisingly the t 67 due to a very distinctive wintergreen flavor that I Found so intoxicating

the t 70 and the t94 rounded out my top 3 ports of the night.

of the champanges the 78 Veuve was a very surprising wine to me as i had no expectations but it drank absolutely fantastic.
the dom 85 was the one with loads of potential and should show to be one of the best doms of the the 70s and 80s.

again was good to see everyone again,

Lamont, I have your notes if you want them (as you wrote too much info, I don't feel like transcribing them =)).

Will link up the TN and post notes later.

Btw, what was really interesting was that there was definitely a very strong underlying component in ALL of the taylors that I think I would say is the "house style"

Chris and I both noted an anise / black licorise tasting in all of the finishes.

Ruth and I noted that the 80, 83, 85 tastes exactly the same but with varying levels of intensity that could have been marked by the differences in vintage.

[JohninNYC]

Thanks Jeff and Josh for organizing the entire evening. I was glad to have seen you all again. Many of us concur about the T70. I started some threads on the TN.

[RAYC]

Sounds like a great tasting!

my favorite was surprisingly the t 67 due to a very distinctive wintergreen flavor that I Found so intoxicating

One of the interesting things about my time in NY was noticing the far greater fondness of US folk than Brits for this flavour (particularly in the context of root beer, which i have yet to meet a Brit who likes!) - for me it reminds me so much of Germolene (an antiseptic cream common in the UK) that i just can't think of it in any other way!

Your T83 looked an interesting colour!

[jdaw1]

Please do post photographs, even if only marginally different.

[g-man]

Please do post photographs, even if only marginally different.

yes Sandy and Ken has a bunch of them

I'll see if i can get it hosted if so

[JohninNYC]

Mea culpa! We would all especially love it if someone has photos of the colors of the 60's ports as they didn't appear in my photo above.

[Glenn E.]

Arrrgh! My tasting notes did not make it back to Seattle. I remember most of them, but unfortunately not everything. Hopefully others will post their notes and those notes will help me remember mine.

I do have most of the scores stuck in my head... just not the notes.

[g-man]

Arrrgh! My tasting notes did not make it back to Seattle. I remember most of them, but unfortunately not everything. Hopefully others will post their notes and those notes will help me remember mine.

I do have most of the scores stuck in my head... just not the notes.

you left them on a table at the restaurant? or you left them in the hotel

[Glenn E.]

Arrrgh! My tasting notes did not make it back to Seattle. I remember most of them, but unfortunately not everything. Hopefully others will post their notes and those notes will help me remember mine.

I do have most of the scores stuck in my head... just not the notes.

you left them on a table at the restaurant? or you left them in the hotel

I suspect I left them in the hotel. I remember rolling them up and taking them with me from the restaurant, and I remember having them with me on the subway back to the hotel, but I don't remember packing them and of course can't find them in my suitcase. So odds are that I left them in the hotel when we packed up and checked out on Sunday.

[Glenn E.]

Well I think I managed to reconstruct them pretty well. At the very least I think the scores are correct, though I probably lost some detail in the notes themselves.

The consistency across the entire lineup was striking - the violets (which I do not recognize myself, so I am relying on Ruth's knowledge) were quite strong in all of the Ports except the '94 and '95. They were there in the '94 but you had to look for them. I couldn't find them in the '95. The three Ports from the 80s were so close as to almost be indistinguishable.

For me the '63, '66, and '77 were disappointing. Those are all three reknowned for being epic Ports, but at this tasting none of them lived up to the hype. They were all quite good... they just fell short of expectations.

I wish I had more of the '94. All I have is a couple of magnums.

[Chris Doty]

What a great evening!

Excellent arrangement by Josh/Jeff, great food + service by Northsquare, and great company by all in attendance.

I've never found myself enamored with Taylor's (generally finding them a bit expensive for what they are, and usually needing much longer than most shippers to come around), and while I can't say that this experienced changed that fundamental outlook, it did provide a great opportunity to track the evolution of their ports over time.

I must confess that the 85 Dom eeked out the nod for my wine of the night (93 points), followed by the T70 (92) and T94 (91).

Also -- I found the T80 to be more compelling and worthwhile than I would have expected, and many thanks to Julian for contributing this bottle to the tasting!

Will post my notes individually, but again, a great way to celebrate St. Patrick!