ThePortForum.com

@ MigSu - it is! @ Alex - Quinta Penha Franca in Funchal. Single beds, ‘local’ food - Madeira has cooking rather than cuisine, but sometimes what you want really is a tuna steak the size of your head for 15 euros - seawater pools, truly fabulous laundry, excellent location, and a barman who knows ho...

Each time I come to Madeira I go to the Pingo Doce supermarket in town and buy a bottle of this excellent and highly characteristic wine as pre dinner drinking. 75 euros which is probably as cheap as it is anywhere. Anyway a glass of this vibrant mahogany liquid while sitting watching the sunset is ...

I might be about to commit heresy, and I am certainly suffering from pre-holiday-blues, so you may put this down to that. My attendance at this tasting now becomes less likely, not only because I have little port from before 1960, but also because the older it is the more I worry that other people w...

Yes please

Confirming my reserve place. Lovely event. Lovely people.

Would love to attend. I have 1992 and 2003 I think. Possibly 1985, probably 1977.

A perfect port tasting note is one which leads another port aficionado to open a bottle of the same port. Thank you Phil, you have made me very happy.

+ 48 hours

Maybe I was right the first time. Still very nice drinking but after two days has begun its slide towards the generic.

+ 24 hours in the fridge in a decanter

I think I was a little unfair yesterday. This is now a darker, grapier port, if a touch sweet. If someone told me it was a slightly advanced 1985 Fonseca, I might believe them.

1 hour decant A mature garnet Nose of red licorice, herbs, and a whiff of warm rubber Sweet, fully resolved, jelly baby, with star anise late. Very pleasant wine indeed, but with nowhere further to go on this showing. I am going to drink up the remaining bottles of this case over the next couple of ...

A truly lovely bottle of Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre 2010 this evening. Claret as she was made 75 years ago. No oak, 5 years in vat, about 30% petit Verdot. An exercise in restraint and balance. Joyous with leftover cassoulet.

Work tomorrow. Alas.

St Aubin 2020 1er Cru Murgers de dents de chien domaine Henri Boillot was a high class pairing with the lunchtime smoked trout salad Cote Rotie Bernard Burgaud 2019 was a perfect pairing with the cassoulet recette Elizabeth David (damn that woman could write) Chassagne Montrachet 2020 Domaine de la ...

Yep

The penultimate festive entry for me… reward for having spent an afternoon throwing rubbish in a skip again. 2014 Exton Park BdB reserve - still crisp but with enough age to make it really interesting. 2016 Roy Piper Cabernet Sauvignon - packed with matiere, a sipping Cabernet of the highest quality...

@nac - how are the 1997 GCs coming along? You are probably the only person I know who may have multiple recent reference points…

A fine dinner with friends on 27/12 NV Tarlant (2015 base) - serious, but evaporated somehow 2022 Aligote Domaine Sylvain Cathiard - lovely white flowers 2004 Pontet Canet - two hour decant. Absolutely belting bottle of this over-achiever for the vintage. Fruit in abundance but secondary structure t...

Opened 24 hours, decanted 12 hours, a lovely delicate red.

Glorious red fruits.

Fully resolved.

Delicious.

Opened 24 hours, decanted 12 hours

Spice and red fruit

Lovely toffee apple note

Sweet and delicious

Being shared with Julian now (together with W85 and Mz85).

A rather lovely cranberry note.

Splendid.

A Durand (Port Version) is a very fine present indeed, however, even if prompted!

As another, and very wise, commentator once remarked ‘impossible to be overstocked’.

Four hour decant. 90% opaque, red rim. Marvellously grapey nose but with the classic tuberose Fonseca nose on this bottle clearly discernible. Palate redolent of dark fruits and churchyard earth. Long finish with warmth but without heat. Is this now perhaps actually ready? I mean, sure, good for ano...

That Talbot 1983 looks impeccable!

Pichon Baron 2010 now in glass, and a fine full wine it is, now in early maturity but probably 10 years from peak and with another 20 years of vibrant life after that.

Five hour walk complete; longer than planned; due to a Kew riverside bank collapse, a diversion via Brentford added an hour and subtracted quite a lot of pleasure. Still, a half of Gruet NV Rose (bright red and wonderfully tarty) kept us going until the Vosne, which combines delicacy and power as do...

@ Justin K - the chest infections sound dreary. Congratulations on the recovery. Irish bottled Taylor 1970 well deserved!