Diminishing Palates

[Alex Bridgeman]

Here's another thought from me. When I read g-man's first post, the image that came to my mind when he was describing a "boring" port was one where I look at what's in my cellar and then think to myself "Oh well, I've got a case of those and I have to drink them sometime so I might as well open one now."

There's nothing wrong with the port in question, it just won't bring as much enjoyment as most other port in my cellar. Rather than treat it as a port to sip and savour over the duration of an evening, it is one to drink with food so that the food can offset the boring character of the port.

There are a few people on this forum who have tried the Royal Oporto 1963, the Borges 1963 (both faded past the point of elegance) and the Hutcheson 1987 (which just hasn't got what it takes) and these are ports that I would drop into the category I describe above.

However, I do see the debate about using a mid-point or peak port as a reference point. A mid-point port I can cope with because you can use a measurement system that says "about the same as..." or "a bit better than..." or "much worse than..." but I would struggle to come up with something similar for a reference point that was a world beating port. Formula 1 can measure performance against the very best using an agreed and impartial (stewards permitting) measurement system to record the difference between the best performance and any other performance. With port performance, we are nowhere near an imaprtial measurement system.

Alex

[benread]

Alex,

Is this not at the heart of Uncle Tom's scoring system? As I understand it, a 5 represents middle of the road being neither better or worse than the rest. If so, could people not look at those ports they had rated 5-X as a reference?

Ben

[Glenn E.]

The problem with the word baseline is that it also implies a continuum. The classic definition is a starting point from which further comparisons can be made, but it makes no assumption about the relative position of the starting point.

Think in medical terms - a baseline is your state of health when you visit a new doctor for the first time. From then on, your new doctor can compare test results to that baseline to determine whether you are getting healthier (or sicker).

In that sense, ANY port can be a baseline port. It's just the one you drank most recently, and all future ports will be compared to that one. That's probably where Derek is coming from in attempting to find an average port - it ensures that some future ports will be better while others will be worse. But since we have each probably had a different port most recently, that definition doesn't work well for a group.

That's why I'm thinking more along the lines of the term "base" which implies a lowest point to use as the starting point of the classic definition. A minimum standard that we collectively agree is a reasonable example of an entry-level Port.

Though ultimately I think we're drifting away from what g-man was looking for. To that end, my baseline Port tasting note would probably read something like this:

Tastes like nothing more than "port" as a general descriptor. Unremarkable in most respects. Not unpleasant, but not particularly pleasant either.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Alex,

Is this not at the heart of Uncle Tom's scoring system? As I understand it, a 5 represents middle of the road being neither better or worse than the rest. If so, could people not look at those ports they had rated 5-X as a reference?

Ben

I agree, I think it is. I also really like Tom's scoring system from an intellectual point of view. It is probably the best relative scale there is for judging port. The trouble is that I am rubbish at using the scoring system. I tried it for a year, using both UncleTom score and a 100 point score. Then I analysed the scores at the end of the year and found that I rated my bottles on a normal distribution of scores on the UncleTom scale - but it is supposed to result in an even distribution. As a result, I have pretty much stopped using it , but only because I am rubbish at using it and not for any dislike of the concept.

Alex

[DRT]

I also really like Tom's scoring system ...I tried it for a year, using both UncleTom score and a 100 point score. Then I analysed the scores at the end of the year

I am willing to bet that AHB is the only man in the world who has done this. It is one of the reasons why we love him.