1963 Feuerheerd

[jdaw1]

Tom provided four excellent bottles, all from Hedges & Butler (which I guessed): Fd63, D55, D63, T60. And a half bottle of Mouton Rothschild 1955, alas not bottled by Hedges & Butler.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1963 Feuerheerd (Ⅰ);
• 1955 Dow (Ⅱ);
• 1963 Dow (Ⅲ);
• 1960 Taylor (Ⅳ);
• 1955 Mouton Rothschild (Ⅴ);
• Placemats (and parameters by which made);
• Planning and arrangements.

[jdaw1]

Fd63. red, with a hint of brown, 45% opaque. Nose had chocolate and coffee. Palate mid-weight, silky smooth, some heat, and strawberries. Grade-A Port. Perfect maturity.

My guesses hesitated between Gould Campbell (chocolate and coffee) and Warre (strawberries). Very different to my one previous taste of Fd63.

Fd63. Taste very hot. Mouth-drying spirit and heat. No fruit. Long past it.

[jdaw1]

[Alex Bridgeman]

Hedges & Butler. Delightful appearance, a lovely mature red colour with a pale rim; 30% opaque. Faint nose, showing mature fruit and promising good acidity. Wonderful impact on the palate, full of fruit and with the great structure promised by the nose. Slightly thinner in texture than the Dow 55 and Dow 63 shown alongside, but a better wine that still has faint hints of tannin in the mix; but dominated by the lovely blood orange that is the core of this wine. A great finish, full of flavour and with the tannins giving a pleasing dryness to the whole. Served blind this was guessed to be Noval 1955. 94/100. Drunk 28-Aug-14. 4 hour decant.