Ports Drunk in 2007

[Alex Bridgeman]

I was posting the tasting notes from the Christmas offline earlier this morning, and noticed the number of notes I made in 2007 compared to 2006.

I stress that these are notes taken and not bottles consumed on my own (although, clearly, some will be bottles drunk at home on my own). Last year, I made 153 tasting notes on different bottles with some duplication of shipper and vintage.

This year, up to last night, I have made 152 tasting notes. With 3 weeks to the end of the year I am pretty sure that I will manage to match or beat the port count from last year.

I could have put this into the meaningless statistics thread, but decided not to. Does anyone else keep a tasting note diary? What is the average number of tasting notes that folks take in a year? (Remember, before you accuse me of being a portoholic, that I drink very little other than port and rarely go to tastings other than port tastings.)

Alex

[DRT]

Alex,

I don't take notes every time I open a bottle and do not always take notes at Offlines but I would suspect that the number of ports I have tasted this year will be at least equivalent to your own.

I too tend to drink port rather than wine and I think I will have opened around 100 bottles again this year. Offlines will have added at least 50 to that total, possibly even 100

Derek

[Simon Lisle]

I drink a bottle a week more at this time of year.

[Conky]

I keep no records. Drink mostly ordinary ports (LBV's Tawny's,etc). I'd say I drink at least one bottle a week, and guess the true figure would surprise me!

While I'm on, I went to a dinner party on Saturday, where I was asked to bring a bottle of VP. As the other 3 couples were Port Novices, but decent general drinkers, I took a Morgans 91. I was surprised how keen they all were. We went through the decanting, sediment, early sip, hourly taste, tears, rim, changing taste(Heat) and the final mellow drink and tasting thoughts.
I was beginning to suspect they may be up to something, teasing me, as they appeared ridiculously keen, but it did appear to be genuine interest.
There was lots of talk about where you can get this 'nicer' type of Port. They may not follow it through, but it's clear the modern middle-aged wine-savvy generation, likes to see the old fashioned, still developing in the bottle type of drink. It occured to me that it hits all the right buttons. Slow, natural, organic, special, all words that are remedies to the fast consumer led world we live in.

Alan

[Andy Velebil]

I typically have about 1-2 bottles a week, unless there is an offline or friends over, where many more are opened. Add in the 200+ TN's from the Harvest Tour this year, and there must be well over 300 TN's I've written this year

Really adds up quick...when i get time I'll try and do an actual count.

[Axel P]

Alex,

right now Im mixing the tasting notes of my Ports with the other wines, but I should get it organized over the christmas days.

One thing is for sure: Port-TNs are on the rise while others are kind of stable.

All the best

Axel

[Alex Bridgeman]

While I'm on, I went to a dinner party on Saturday, where I was asked to bring a bottle of VP. As the other 3 couples were Port Novices, but decent general drinkers, I took a Morgans 91. I was surprised how keen they all were. We went through the decanting, sediment, early sip, hourly taste, tears, rim, changing taste(Heat) and the final mellow drink and tasting thoughts.

As stupid as it sounds, it has never occured to me to take a bottle of Morgan '91 to an event such as this. However, it is the perfect port as it is easily available over the internet, not too expensive and shows very well. I might be buying a few more of these in the next few months as I will be doing a few "novice" tastings over the next few months.

Alex