ThePortForum.com

Post-menu-change please can my standard food order be amended to

Starter: Burrata on toast, burnt orange, heritage tomato, crushed coriander and fennel seed dressing
Main: Sirloin 220g, aged for 28 days, served with green salad
Side: Chips
Pudding: Treacle Tart

A bonus (or, depending on your perspective on the Sandeman 1955, consolation) half bottle popped, decanted, and poured. I confess to only limited recall of this, on which I made no written notes, but I do recall it was a good mature red, figgy on the palate, entirely sippable (indeed, quaffable) and...

30% opaque. Pale pink with some orange, Spirity nose with some tobacco. Warm orange on the palate. Drying out but with some interest still. Hint of sweet chili on the finish. A slightly flawed bottle; more than merely drinkable; but I cannot see this wine as being anything other than on the downward...

80% opaque with a slightly orange rim. Violets on the nose- clearly Taylors. In the mouth- oh, that's very good stuff. Chewy with rich dark fruits. Very long. I guessed 1985 Taylor, since I've never tasted a 1980 Taylor close in quality to this. My WOTN, and a close second for the group to IDJ's G70...

Distinctly red wine. Some rubber and varnish on the nose, but that blew off. Very reminiscent of the Graham 1970 I had at New Year, but with the good qualities (rich sweet poached red fruits and red liquorice) better displayed, and the difficulties (rubbery quality) very much less pronounced. This i...

A lot of varnish on the nose. A hint of heat along with the strawberries in the palate. Long warm finish. I got it as Graham but thought it much older than its age - 1948?

Orange-pink wine. This is not young. in the mouth, my note says 'Figs! Figs! Figs!'. We can assume a somewhat figgy quality. Lovely stuff actually. I guessed NN '67.

60% opaque, red rim. Mint on nose. Nice middleweight port, pretty even. But not young for its years (I guessed Cockburn '60; I think only one guess was in the right quarter-century).

10% clear, 30% orange, 60% pink: this is not a young wine. Some fire on the nose. In the mouth long, luscious, nutty, with oranges. Still port. Guessed Croft 1955.

Sounds jolly nice. When was this 1981 bottled? The tone of your note suggests that it has had a good long rest in barrel before recent bottling.

A splendid evening, and thank you to Neil for arranging it. The Dow '58 was indeed very fine, and the Taylor '80 was also an admirable example.

@ nac, @CMAG, I propose you as adoptive partners with CMAG adopting nac's Quarles Harris.

Slight finessing after drinking a very good Taylor 80 from jdaw1 last night-

@jdaw1, please bring Taylor, thank you.

@Hadge, @CPR1, may I propose you as adoptive partners with Hadge adopting the Niepoort from CPR1.

@AHB- you may now stand down on the Taylor front and just bring the Croft Roeda.

Reddish juice with mahogany rim; 50% opaque. Hint of varnish on tasting sample. With swirling, nose of dried fig and Provencal herbs, with a hint of bassetti after a while. On the palate, dried fruit flavours, prunes and unsulphured apricots, slightly but not unpleasantly confected. Rich in glycerin...

Bottle decanted at 0600 this morning. Some seepage, cork having started to fail in transit. Decanting sample tasted admirable but colour a bit light. Not sure. Unopened backup half bottle has been packed, in case primary choice has deteriorated, or if we run out of port.

Very happy for that to happen, and have added him to the list.

From half bottle (Niepoort Secundum according to cork). 24 hour decant. 70% opaque red juice, 10% orange rim. Splendid nose of red fruit and oregano. Front palate of mixed Mediterranean herbs and then some poached plums mid-palate. Long redcurrant finish, not a hint of alcoholic warmth despite the 2...

Confirmed okay, looking forward to it.

On first opening, the colour of a rose muscat rather than a port; I could read text through a tasting-sized sample of it so arguably 0% opaque. Following 30 minute decant, hot nose with hint of dried apricot rehydrated in tea. Front palate of Turkish delight, a little chilli heat mid palate, followe...

Congratulations on passing - a big moment, and the culmination of years of hard work.

Much less seriously, a unicorn tasting note, and only the second on this site of a 1993 port of any variety. Of the last 50 years, only 1973 has fewer...

@ nac - Thank you, much appreciated.
@ CMAG - let us know idc whether you would prefer to continue to hunt or to adopt.

That would still suggest you are sorted for annual iterations of this tasting until you are 80...

From a half bottle. 1 hr decant. Very dark still, 80% opaque, 10% purple tinged, 10% red rim. Black cherry and chocolate and a little alcoholic heat on the nose. Black forest gateau in the mouth - lovely layered black cherry jam, cream and chocolate. More black cherries with chocolate on the finish,...

The combination of remorseless analysis and case after case of lovely port is a delightful one...

Now this, this is the tasting note of the year. The soaring arc of narrative, covering centuries and continents; and then the bathetic nature of the ending... thank you; a pleasure to read, and informative with it.