24th Sept 2012, Warre's vs Fonseca

[PhilW]

On Monday 24th September 2012, several members of TPF met at TBH for a dual mini-vertical of Warre's and Fonseca ports of the same years.

Links:

• Planning and arrangements.
• Placemats;
• 1955 Warre;
• 1960 Warre;
• 1963 Warre;
• 1966 Warre;
• 1970 Warre;
• 1977 Warre;
• 1985 Warre;
• 1955 Fonseca;
• 1960 Fonseca;
• 1963 Fonseca;
• 1966 Fonseca;
• 1970 Fonseca;
• 1977 Fonseca;
• 1985 Fonseca;
• Review of the evening as a whole;

[griff]

I really enjoyed this tasting. A consistently high standard of port for me. Excellent show!

[PhilW]

A splendid evening, with a fine showing of people and ports! Most of the ports showed extremely well, with only the W60 being obviously faulty (tasting like a tawny) and a slight mark over the W85 (slightly crumbled cork). While the 85's were clearly outclassed, the rest of the field really was absolutely superb; In my opinion at least 8 of the wines present could easily have been WOTN on a different occasion.

For each vintage in turn, the pair of wines was scored (6 points allocated as desired between the two ports, minimum resolution of a quarter), with the following results:

• Year: Warre - Fonseca
• 1955: 31.75 - 28.25
• 1960: 16.00 - 38.00
• 1963: 27.50 - 32.50
• 1966: 27.50 - 32.50
• 1970: 26.50 - 33.50
• 1977: 22.25 - 37.75
• 1985: 17.00 - 43.00

Although the above shows Fonseca as the winner across the majority of years, many of the scores are very close and the general feeling seemed to be that we were in most cases comparing an excellent pair of ports with a great showing by both houses. There was also some discussion that a single biased vote might skew the scores considerably; I can confirm that if the scoring were revised with highest and lowest scores for each year discarded, the result would stay the same (though 66 becomes incredibly close).

For WOTN (a separate vote with the usual 6pts to be allocated by each attendee across the evening's favoured wines), the Warre 55 was the clear winner; in fact five wines were markedly ahead of the rest of the rest for WOTN votes, which were:

• 1. W55 with 16pts
• 2. F66 with 11pts
• 3. F70 with 8.5pts
• 4. F63 with 8pts
• 5. W66 with 7pts

Thank you to AHB and DRT for assistance doing all the pouring, to everyone who supplied excellent ports
with good provenance which showed superbly, and to all for a very enjoyable evening.

[DRT]

A splendid evening with an excellent line-up of Ports.

Thanks to Phil for organising and to the team for a selection of stunning bottles and excellent company.

This is what Port tasting is all about!!

[PopulusTremula]

Despite being seriously out of my depth it was indeed a fantastic evening with a stellar lineup of wines, the vast majority of which showed tremendously well. On the whole, I found it very difficult to separate out the "duds" and as mentioned above, apart from W60 and W85 it was almost a photo finish between the remaining wines. My WOTN vote however was for F70, surely a wine which deserves a place in the pantheon of port?

Thanks for Phil for organising a truly memorable evening and, importantly, to those who brought wines for us all to share!

/Magnus

[Alex Bridgeman]

It was a remarkable evening, and a theme that I would never have imagined as being as interesting as it turned out to be. I love having my palate and preconceptions challenged and really enjoyed the evening - despite the fact that the pub next door would not serve me an Earl Grey tea after midnight!

Thanks to Phil for making all the arrangements and organising a great evening. Thanks to the people who contributed the wines and thanks to everyone who attended and made it such a fun evening - and a pleasure to meet Magnus for the first time!

[Christopher]

A great evening with wonderful company as always. Phil thanks for arranging this I know it has been alot of work. The Ports showed very well and yet again demonstrated that we should drink more port from the 70's or earlier! Very much enjoyed the Warre 55 and the Fonseca 70 was fantastic. You can never have enough of this wine in my opinion!
As usual the Bung Hole did a sterling job - it really does work well for tastings and is very convenient when you work in the City!

[Alex Bridgeman]

I've just posted my tasting notes, over a month after the tasting and I'm shocked and disappointed to see that I am the first! Was I the only person there taking notes? Were the rest of you just drinking with no appreciation for the vinous beauty of what you were consuming? Shame on you all!

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

[jdaw1]

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[jdaw1]

I've just posted my tasting notes, over a month after the tasting and I'm shocked and disappointed to see that I am the first! Was I the only person there taking notes? Were the rest of you just drinking with no appreciation for the vinous beauty of what you were consuming? Shame on you all!

Apologies for the delay — my notes now posted.

A photograph of DRT’s notes have been emailed to him, so his might, and might not, follow.

[PhilW]

I've just posted my tasting notes, over a month after the tasting and I'm shocked and disappointed to see that I am the first! Was I the only person there taking notes? Were the rest of you just drinking with no appreciation for the vinous beauty of what you were consuming? Shame on you all!

Apologies for the delay — my notes now posted.

A photograph of DRT’s notes have been emailed to him, so his might, and might not, follow.

I'm almost tempted to go back and post mine too... or perhaps more tempted to organise to do it again [/slap to self, sort the Martinez out first!]

[jdaw1]

I'm almost tempted to go back and post mine too...

Do it.

[PhilW]

I'm almost tempted to go back and post mine too...

Do it.

Done.