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A random half bottle picked up while filleting a non-UK wine list for other things. 2 hour decant. 90% opaque glass-staining black cherry juice. Nose like a very expensive Napa Cabernet served slightly too young- wood, mint, red fruit. On the palate, an explosion of ripe berries. Very attractive bal...

Full disclosure: I have a gently seeping bottle of Dalva 1934, bottled 1973 (my birth year). Since 2 June is my birthday it, like AHB's Ferreira 1963, has a tiny tumbril next to the cork.

@ Doggett - ditto

Please sign me up. I posess neither of the relevant wines, so like Glenn I will open something else, possibly moderately festive.

Don't know about port but fermenting longer, reaching a higher ABV, adding less spirit, and the result being a drier wine but with more grape specificity used to be the house style of ABSL in Madeira.

24 hr decant. 90% opaque, remarkably dark for a 43-year old wine, and uncharacteristically so for a 1977. Nose quite dumb. Swirling eventually reveals some ink and slightly dusty black cherries. There is sweet damson fruit on the palate but you have to work for it. Big plummy, beefy, savoury tannins...

It's a colheita, I suspect. So, could be Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI?

From half. 3 hr decant. 90% opaque red juice. Looks high on glycerine. Some garden herbs on the nose but immediately succeeded by deep succulent berry fruits. More nosing suggests a touch of alcoholic heat. In the mouth, generous sweet red fruits up front and a lovely sweet loganberry finish. Not re...

+ 24 hrs 85% plum colour, red-brown rim. Mint and milk chocolate on nose with some slightly sour cherries underneath In the mouth nutty with more sour cherries on the finish and some drying tannins. +48 hours A touch lighter and browner. Sultanas, almost fruit cake, on nose with just a hint of aceto...

From half. Decanted 23 hrs, stored in 'fridge. 95% opaque, red rim. Mint and cinnamon and blackcurrant on the nose. Prune juice on the palate. A hint of russet apple at the edges. Pronounced blackcurrant, more than a hint of molasses, on the finish. Not outstandingly long. A hint of George Saintsbur...

TV 1996 in half - lovely right now.
Musar 2001 - good, but not on a par with the 1999 consumed a few weeks ago.

… or maybe it's just me. You have an accurate idea of what's in your cellar and an idea of when it's likely to be drunk but there are some things that you consider you ought to have that somehow you haven't managed to acquire or keep in any quantity. Partly a function of drinking what one has at imm...

I regret that a (US) client call that has dropped into my diary is going to cut right across this so I will not now be able to attend. If you do go with the Warre 2007 Unfiltered LBV I would very interested to hear everyone's views. I liked the 04 but struggled with the 07.

This is VP not Colheita. Decanted 1 hr. 60% opaque, slightly browning at the rim. Slightly reduced nose, would perhaps benefit from longer decant. But, a nice prune note among the raspberries. Quite high toned on the palate but not bothersomely so, classical cherry stone with a flicker of Seville or...

From a half bottle, the label of which explains (to a level of detail that almost runs out of space) that it is bottled and shipped by Smith Woodhouse, and selected and shipped by The Wine Society. Decanting sample. 50 % opaque, pale rim. Fully mature mid red. Lots of dusty cherries on the nose, hin...

Yes please. Might be interesting to set a house, rather than a wine, and see what everyone comes up with...

@ idj123 - I am doing the same. The Special Reserve (my favourite on the first night) perhaps fading a little. The Colheita 2004 much improved by a couple of days of air, some mirabelle plum on the nose, walnuts and caramel on the palate, with a delightful gentle warmth on the finish

Last night was jolly fun. Reading the discussion above, have just pulled the corks on tonight's wines. Looking forward to it!

The warning uncle tom gives about being careful with checking size/capacity is all the more true if you are looking at vintage or antique decanters. Much wine, and most cheap spirit, was 'decanted' straight from cask before the Single Bottle Act 1861; there was no coalescing of decanter size around ...

Yes please, for both days.

Happy Birthday Tom! I will 'reassess' the Taylor 1992...

This appears to be leftovers from last year's stock clearance. I have been to two central London M&S that previously had such stock and I have not seen it on the shelves.

The last of a case of Emmanuel Giboulot's 2011 Haut Cotes de Nuits 'En Gregoire' 2011. An old lady now, but a damned attractive one. Consumed over two nights, it evaporated rather than was drunk.

I'm up for that, but there may be too many of us for it to be wieldy.

My halves have arrived safely. Some really thoughtful additional touches. Delighted to see the familiar style of placemats (laminated!) and tasting notes sheet. Plus the invitation to a glass of port in Portugal when this is all over. Looking forward to it!