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We drank Croft. We drank Croft, at the Boot & Flogger, on Tuesday 7th November 2023.

• Review of evening as a whole;
• Tasting notes:
  • 1927 Croft;
  • 1935 Croft;
  • 1945 Croft;
  • 1950 Croft;
  • 1955 Croft;
  • 1960 Croft;
  • 1963 Croft;
  • 1966 Croft;
  • 1970 Croft;
  • 1975 Croft;
  • 1977 Croft;
  • 1991 Croft;
  • 1994 Croft;
  • 2000 Croft;
  • 2003 Croft;
  • 2011 Croft;
  • 2017 Croft;
• Placemats, and the food order;
• Planning and arrangements.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening with excellent company; overall the wines showed well, though with some variations.
- the ’27 was quite oxidised (as expected from previously-leaked bottle with light colour)
- the ’45 was not singing as much as it can, though still showed well enough to garner my three points.
- the ’50 was pretty good, especially since it’s usually considered/expected to be pretty poor.
- the ’55 had mild TCA (still drinkable, but a real shame as this was fabulous immediately post-decant; good at time of pre-pour though slightly more muted, with the TCA slowly appearing as the evening progressed)
- the ’66 caused some debate; I liked it – especially immediately post-pouring when it was still quite chilled – but not a typical example, this wine having toffee notes.
- we did have an '82 thanks to last minute addition from Harry (thank you!) to help bridge the gap from '77 to '91
- there was such a clear left bank ('27 to '82) and right bank ('91 to '17) in terms of maturity, so voting was performed separately for the younger and older ranges.
- amongst the older wines there were three clear leaders; the '45, '60 and '35
- amongst the younger wines, the '94 and '11 scored most, with the '17 next; all three of these were great in different ways, in particular for me the 2011 has such smooth fruit hiding the tannins, while the '17 while much younger is showing a very firm tannic grip with great structure, less fruit showing yet also very smooth.

A much enjoyed tasting - thank you to all for the supply of wines and organisation that made it possible, including the B&F staff who did us proud as always.

Voting was undertaken for two age ranges, 1927-1982 and 1991-2017.

Everyone* seems to have ignored the generously provided but sadly dreadful 1982, which someone - I believe it was Martin? - described as being ‘in the top quartile of 1982 Croft he had tasted, but still horrible’.

* apart from PhilW, who touches on it above. D’oh!

I note that 1982 Croft was apparently so horrible that it was expunged from the voting records.

(Yes, yes, I understand that it was a last-minute add. It's still funny.)

In all seriousness, though, this was a splendid evening with a lot of ports of real class.