Old & Odd, Friday 7th November 2008, New York

[jdaw1]

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Planning and arrangements;
• Placemats;
• Tasting notes:
  • 1873 Schofield;
  • 1896 Elviro Garcia ‘Refreshed’ tawny;
  • 1932 Butler Nephew;
  • 1938 Hooper;
  • 1942 Hooper;
  • 1944 Hooper colheita;
  • 1947 Barros colheita;
  • 1952 Barros colheita;
  • Infantado Vintage Character, bottled October 1996.

[Glenn E.]

I had a grand time at the tasting! It was great meeting everyone and putting faces to userids, too. Thanks very much for the opportunity and I can't wait for the next one!

I'll post a longer review once I get back to Seattle, as well as my tasting notes. We had some interesting Ports!

[g-man]

mmm think i needed more water =)

[jdaw1]

Splendid evening, with a wide spread of votes for WOTN. And a great new venue, all set to become our regular haunt—well found by Jeff.

[jdaw1]

At yesterday’s Old & Odd in New York we discussed AHB’s 5cl spirit bottles, that he uses for take-out remnants and to save and post tasting samples for others. Consensus was that the narrow opening makes them difficult to fill.

Possible better bottles discussed in that thread.

[DRT]

I would be interested to read comments on decanting times for these ports following on from the debate in the organisation thread.

...and does anyone know where AHB is right now? There is a Sainsbury sale on in the UK and I can't contat him to alert him to the oportunity. If he is mid-atlantic at 30,000ft, do the team think I should just spend some of his money wisely on his behalf?

[benread]

...and does anyone know where AHB is right now? There is a Sainsbury sale on in the UK and I can't contat him to alert him to the oportunity. If he is mid-atlantic at 30,000ft, do the team think I should just spend some of his money wisely on his behalf?

I think you should give serious consideration to this! It is what any friend would do! You should probably ensure it is invested in products you equally would enjoy, knowing that friends like to share!

[AHB]

It was a fun evening and a very fine venue. It was great to meet up with old friends and to meet some new people. A fun evening trying some quite bizarre ports - most (all?) of which worked.

Luckily, I did have enough water and so woke the next day feeling tired, but not too bad. Pity about the torrential rain as I walked to Penn Station to catch the LIRR to the airport. I was dripping by the time I reached shelter!

Thanks all for waiting for my travel plans to allow me to join the event. Full tasting notes will follow in due course, but my overall impressions:

1873 Unknown - tired, old, well past its best but still extremely enjoyable and seemed to hit its sweet spot about 2-3 hours after being poured.
1896 Garcia - tawny; very stinky, but enjoyable in the mouth and good aftertaste. Seemed to be a blend making the most of pronounced Douro bake.
Infantado VC - lacked the body of the other wines of the evening, but still pleasant and dominated by raspberry coulis.
1932 Butler Nephew - fragile and delicate; incredibly dry, good complexity on mid-palate and aftertaste.
1938 Hooper - dark red colour for the age, sweet and silky in the mouth with lots of candied fruit. A bit cloying on the aftertaste.
1942 Hooper - also dark red colour for its age, more closed than the '38. Lots of nutmeg mixed with the fruit. Nice.
1947 Barros - colheita; bottle stink and molasses on the nose, honey and lemon in the mouth. Exceedingly rich.
1952 Barros - colheita; rich and mouthfilling; a very big wine but not quite as good as the '47.
1944 Hooper - colheita;a bit stinky, but lovely honey mixed in with the smell. Best feature is the huge aftertaste but otherwise a little disappointing.
2000 Croft - very fruity blackberries but with a bit of green stalkiness. Not quite balanced between tannins and fruit but hopefully just a bit dumb right now.

My wine of the night was a tie between the 1942 Hooper and the 1947 Barros colheita.

Great fun. Thanks all.

[Glenn E.]

My ranking for the evening, all things considered:

1952 Barros Colheita
1947 Barros Colheita
1896 Elviro Garcia "refreshed" Tawny
(tie) 1938 Hooper
(tie) 1942 Hooper
1944 Hooper Colheita
1932 Butler Nephew
Infantado V.C. bottled in 1996
1873 Schofield

My tasting notes deteriorated as the evening went on, mostly because I'm not used to more than 2-3 glasses of Port at a time. We started with the middle row (the '32, '38, and '42) due to insufficient glasses being available at the designated hour, so those have the most detailed notes for me. I then proceeded to the 19th century and the V.C. and finally to "Colheita row."

The first time through I really didn't find the 1873 to be horrible... it just wasn't at all to my liking in much the same way that I just don't care for madeira. I think, though, that this impression was entirely because there had been a decent pause between the first three tastes (the middle row) and the 1873 caused by the arrival and unpacking of the rest of the glasses. So whatever I'd tasted last had disappeared entirely, giving the 1873 it's only shot at a fresh palate. Once it was compared to anything else head-to-head it was pretty dreadful.

I thought that the Infantado V.C. was quite drinkable. Sure, it was one dimensional and plain, but there really wasn't anything actively wrong with it unlike some of the other Ports. I thought it was really interesting to see how a lower tier Port ages.

Aside from the V.C. and the 1896 which was refreshed, everything looked like a tawny to me. The lighting was typical restaurant dinner fare, meaning low and yellow, so I didn't even try to get good color notes. Most of the Ports were cloudy to some extent, the only exceptions being the '38 and '42 Hoopers. Compared to all that cloudiness, those two Hoopers looked like sparkling gemstones on the table.

I didn't take many notes on finishes, other than to note a couple of cases where they were rather short.

Other than the lighting the venue was awesome, and the steaks were fantastic. The truffled Mac & Cheese was very nice too.

I don't know if anyone actually took notes on the 2000 Croft that we bought in order to avoid paying corkage. It was a juicy and vibrant contrast to all the oldies on the table.