Festive Drinking 2022

Anything to do with Port.
idj123
Morgan 1991
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by idj123 »

Merry Christmas to all fellow Port heads! Had a rather wonderfully mature N60 last night and today the F70 will be making an appearance 😊
winesecretary
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1900
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by winesecretary »

Spice Route Quevri Orange Wine 2020 as a pre prandial before lunch today. Very pleasant probably chenin blanc orange wine but nothing in it that intrinsically tells you which continent it was from let alone vintage country or region.

Big contrast: with the pheasant a bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle bought at auction with vintage missing from label but bottle analysis shows is 70s and organoleptic profile says 1972 to me. Fruit still present and correct and that thrilling slightly bretty Rhone thing - call it sweaty saddles or whatever your thing is - which just gives so much interest. Gently declining after an hour in glass. Gorgeous. And, unlike the orange wine I am fairly sure I could nail this blind it speaks so much of time and place.
winesecretary
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1900
Joined: 15:35 Mon 13 May 2019

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by winesecretary »

Nuits St Georges Les Damodes 2015. Domaine Fabienne Bony. Crushed black cherry nose. Congruent palate before the earth appears and then the tannins. Young enough still to drink on the fruit and a great and contemplative pleasure to do so especially with the second glass, Brendel spielt Mozart on the stereo, cat on knee, happiness.

That served with the cheese, before that the remainder of the orange wine with a chicken salad. Acceptable but no more.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

With the splendidly successful turkey family Christmas dinner today we had a bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle 1996 and a bottle of Camel Valley Vineyards Bacchus 2020. Unfortunately it seems I was the only one who preferred to drink red wine with the turkey...
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Justin K
Niepoort LBV
Posts: 251
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by Justin K »

Light Christmas Day lunch with a bottle of Rathfinny ‘17 Classic Cuvée which, despite its Irish sounding name, is actually from Sussex. Our first time departing from traditional Champagne; it won’t be our last, light and refreshing. Not mad about turkey so cooked a côte de boeuf and opened an Aldi Bekka Valley wine from Lebanon, just two glasses to leave room for the Irish private bottled Taylor’s 1970 which looked and tasted like a wine barely 20 years old. Just to be patriotic I finished the night with a small Irish Whiskey (cask strength 2001 malt finished in PX cask and bottled last year. What a contrast from last year’s Covid recovery dry day😊🥂🍷🍷🥃
winesecretary
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1900
Joined: 15:35 Mon 13 May 2019

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by winesecretary »

@ Justin - that Taylor's sounds like a gem

A salmon and spinach curry this evening preceded and accompanied by a Billecart Salmon Cuvee Nicholas Billecart 2002. Truly splendid pairing, the crisp red apple note and the chalk note in the blend both contributing.
winesecretary
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1900
Joined: 15:35 Mon 13 May 2019

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by winesecretary »

The BSCNB 02 kept us going until bed time. Helen's 50th today so she's at a spa while I clean the house for the party tonight. Lunch has involved the second half of an impeccable 2015 Maranges 1er Cru Clos Rousseau from Maison en Belle Lies. The first half accompanying last night's cheese, this second half is funky but not mousy with vibrant fruit and acidity. Red Burgundy is a desperately difficult balancing act: this works.
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mosesbotbol
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by mosesbotbol »

'85 Ferreira last night that was almost completely clear. Hardly the first time this has happened with a Ferreira. Tasted like there was nothing left to it. Not a ton of sediment in the bottle either. Was served along with a '99 Musar White that took forever and a day to open up.

Not the most flattering Christmas Day line up.
F1 | Welsh Corgi | Did Someone Mention Port?
Bertie3000
Cockburn’s Special Reserve
Posts: 41
Joined: 11:28 Sat 30 Oct 2021

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by Bertie3000 »

Christmas Day with the family. There are a couple of wine lovers in the group but most have only a passing interest, despite my efforts. We started with a bottle of Hattingly Valley Classic Cuvee. Good quality fizz to kick things off. Next we opened a magnum of Simpsons Q Class Chardonnay 2020. This is probably the best English Chardonnay I have tasted to date, displaying both citrus and tropical fruit flavours along with a long and refined finish. After that we opened a New Zealand Chardonnay (Omata Estate, as a member of family lives 3 miles from here) but it could not compete with the Simpsons. For the reds we went to Napa for Newton Spring Mountain 2014. This is still a baby to be honest with plenty of dark fruit but starting to drink very nicely. I am looking forward to seeing how these develop over the years. For the port we opened a mystery bottle that turned out to be Noval 1947. This was a real treat. Fairly light coloured with a small amount of cherry fruit remaining. Quite sweet and very smooth/easy to drink. I have no doubt this is a little past its best but still a joy to drink.
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nac
Fonseca 1980
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by nac »

Christmas Day - fairly restrained after some of the recent excess…
Kicked off with Dom Perignon 2000 - not the greatest ever DP, but still pretty good. Lovely combination of citrus and autolytic bready notes.
Red - Ducru Beaucailou 2007 in magnum (excellent & no rush in this size bottle).
White - Smith-Haut-Lafite 2012 (OK).
Port - Sandeman 1942 (the 2nd of 3 bottles from C&B a few years ago - £12/bt I think) - mid shoulder and some evidence that cork was starting to fail, but still definitely Port and really quite good at 80.
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by JacobH »

winesecretary wrote: 16:30 Sun 25 Dec 2022 Spice Route Quevri Orange Wine 2020 as a pre prandial before lunch today. Very pleasant probably chenin blanc orange wine but nothing in it that intrinsically tells you which continent it was from let alone vintage country or region.
This sort of generic clay-aged wine seems to be becoming more popular. It is a rather odd development, especially since there is no guarantee as to what technique they are using (e.g. are they just adding fermented wine to age in clay or doing the more elaborate Georgian method where it ferments and then clarifies in the qvevri?) but I presume the market will eventually sort this out.
Justin K wrote: 19:02 Mon 26 Dec 2022an Aldi Bekka Valley wine from Lebanon,
I didn’t realise this existed. Does the bottle say who made it? They Aldi website is unhelpful...

I don’t think I can compete with many of the selections here.

Sparkling wines included a Sussex champagne-blend by Albury which was new to me. Attractive but tasted slightly under-ripe to me. We also had some NV rosé from Bollinger & Pommery on consecutive nights which was interesting since I much preferred the latter to the former.

Reds: I was offered some 2019 Tignanello which was as excellent as you expect; although very young for my tastes. We also had some Musar 1998 which was drinking extremely well and, as always, represents astonishing value.

Ports: a very enjoyable showing from a Graham 1977 and a Palmer 1977 colheita for comparison.

I also was offered a glass of DOC Lourinhã: the Portuguese brandy which is new to me. Not sure it would beat an decent Cognac in a blind tasting but it was a nice change of pace which I will try again.

PS: Reading thought this thread, I am interested by how many of us went for English sparkling wines and Lebanese wines. I suppose the former is the general trend in their favour whilst the latter is a bit more intriguing. Is there a correlation between liking Port and middle-eastern wines?
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Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by Glenn E. »

I opened a 1970 Croft to go with our Christmas Eve tradition of Swedish Meatballs. It was soft a beautiful and paired very nicely with the meatballs and brown gravy. Then for dessert I opened a DR 40 Year Old. Gorgeous!

We don't generally do much of anything on Christmas Day. Swedish pancakes for breakfast, then whatever's in the house for dinner.

Boxing Day evening I finally gave up and finished my Quevedo Advent Calendar. A couple of us had been saving the last 4 bottles (all of the 30 Year Old Whites) to try to taste together, but one thing or another kept interfering so we called it off. I was surprised by how different they all smelled... and tasted, too. I'm not sure I could necessarily identify which was which in a lineup - aside from Tonel #14 Grandpa's White which was significantly sweeter than the other 3 - but I could easily tell them apart while tasting through them. Much fun! Sadly the Quevedo style for White Port seems to be too dry for my taste.
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Justin K
Niepoort LBV
Posts: 251
Joined: 19:19 Mon 15 Dec 2008

Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by Justin K »

Justin K wrote: 19:02 Mon 26 Dec 2022an Aldi Bekka Valley wine from Lebanon,
I didn’t realise this existed. Does the bottle say who made it? They Aldi website is unhelpful...

I don’t think I can compete with many of the selections here.

Sparkling wines included a Sussex champagne-blend by Albury which was new to me. Attractive but tasted slightly under-ripe to me. We also had some NV rosé from Bollinger & Pommery on consecutive nights which was interesting since I much preferred the latter to the former.

Reds: I was offered some 2019 Tignanello which was as excellent as you expect; although very young for my tastes. We also had some Musar 1998 which was drinking extremely well and, as always, represents astonishing value.
[/quote]

Chateau Ksara and I open it the day before, it always tastes better 24 hours later.
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: Festive Drinking 2022

Post by JacobH »

Justin K wrote: 01:00 Thu 29 Dec 2022Chateau Ksara and I open it the day before, it always tastes better 24 hours later.
Thanks. Might see if I can find some. I appreciate Ksara is the biggest producer in Lebanon but I’ve always been pleased with their wines.
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