London Quinta De Vargellas tasting - 24th March

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 21:53 Mon 09 Mar 2009

AHB wrote:I will happily leave you two kerning away. My only comments would be that I can live with the font of the numeral 1 as it is, but would also observe that it is rather harsh looking against the other numerals, with 1991 looking particularly dominated by the numeral 1 - the 1 almost looks to be taller and bolder than the 9s.

Blame Eric Gill. Edward Johnston’s Johnston Sans (better know as the London Transport typeface, which was a major influence on Gill) originally had the top of the 1 chopped off (see bottom). I gather that this was changed in one of the many redesigns to be a more conventional up-and-down form (before being recently reverted). Either would, no-doubt, resolve the harshness, but that appears not to have been something that Gill considered.

: i00005oh.jpg (44.81 KiB) Viewed 8071 times

Julian, I was interested to notice on my way home from work that London Transport now has its numbers kerned for tabular display (i.e. as fixed width) which causes the perceived larger space between the 1 and the next number!

Ghandih · Post by **Ghandih** » 17:32 Tue 10 Mar 2009

Hello,

Ben, many apologies for the delay, but I think I got permission to come along last night (it was less than a ringing endorsement), so please could you ink me in on the invitation list. I'll next need to sponsor a bottle, so I hope someone will be in contact...?

Very much looking forward to seeing you all, and thank-you so much for your patience!

Gandhhi

benread · Post by **benread** » 17:41 Tue 10 Mar 2009

Ghandhi,

Thanks for confirming. I will update the booking with TCP (assume you know where it is - directions available on their websiteif not.)

All:

I have updated the original details- Ghandhi is in need of a bottle to adopt and my alternative has already been adopted by Christopher. Any offers - suggest you liaise with Ghandhi direct and just update me once the identity is known.

Look forward to seeing you all in 2 weeks.

Ben

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 20:41 Tue 10 Mar 2009

Ghandih wrote:Ben, many apologies for the delay, but I think I got permission to come along last night (it was less than a ringing endorsement), so please could you ink me in on the invitation list. I'll next need to sponsor a bottle, so I hope someone will be in contact...?

Ghandih: may I have you initials for the placemats? I’m afraid my second choice bottle for that evening is the same as Ben’s (and therefore Christopher’s) so I hope someone else might be able to sort you out!

Post by **DRT** » 20:43 Tue 10 Mar 2009

JacobH wrote: I hope someone else might be able to sort you out!

Work in progress

Post by **jdaw1** » 21:17 Tue 10 Mar 2009

JacobH wrote:Ghandih: may I have you initials for the placemats?

SRG. And he is left handed, though the placemat software knows that about ‘SRG’.

Ghandih · Post by **Ghandih** » 16:48 Wed 11 Mar 2009

Thank-you all. Julian, do reminder me sometime why the placemat software cares about my handedness? That already feels like taking itsy-bitsy-ness to the extreme. And then some.

Derek, looks like I'm waiting on you for some adoption support. Given how long it's taken me to throw my hat in the ring, this is not a chase-up. I'll await word from you.

Ghandhi

Post by **jdaw1** » 17:13 Wed 11 Mar 2009

Ghandih wrote:Julian, do reminder me sometime why the placemat software cares about my handedness? That already feels like taking itsy-bitsy-ness to the extreme.Ghandhi

Watercount boxes on right or left? Given that they are going to be somewhere, where should be a parameter.

Post by **DRT** » 18:13 Wed 11 Mar 2009

Ghandih wrote:Julian, do reminder me sometime why the placemat software cares about my handedness? That already feels like taking itsy-bitsy-ness to the extreme. And then some.

Ghandi,

Given that I know that you know him so well, I am somewhat bemused as to why you would be surprised enough to make this observation about Julian's pedantic tendancies

uncle tom · Post by **uncle tom** » 16:21 Thu 12 Mar 2009

Setting aside whether or not the placemats should remind one of a London Routemaster bus, can someone remind me which bottle they would like me to bring, and which bottles others would like me to bring for them - I'm too jet-lagged to read through the entire thread

Available, I have '64, '67, '69, '72, '78 & '87

Tom

Post by **Alex Bridgeman** » 18:21 Thu 12 Mar 2009

Tom

You're bringing the 1964. Ghandi is looking to adopt a bottle and will post here, I am sure, if he is still in need.

Alex

benread · Post by **benread** » 18:48 Thu 12 Mar 2009

uncle tom wrote:Setting aside whether or not the placemats should remind one of a London Routemaster bus, can someone remind me which bottle they would like me to bring, and which bottles others would like me to bring for them - I'm too jet-lagged to read through the entire thread

Available, I have '64, '67, '69, '72, '78 & '87

Tom

Tom the first post has details of what has been promised so far. Let me know what you are bringing and I will update.

Cheers,

uncle tom · Post by **uncle tom** » 20:00 Thu 12 Mar 2009

Let me know what you are bringing and I will update.

OK, no probs - I will bring a '64 from me and a '72 for Ghandi - if anyone else needs a bottle, the '69 can also be brought.

Tom

benread · Post by **benread** » 22:11 Thu 12 Mar 2009

uncle tom wrote:
Let me know what you are bringing and I will update.
OK, no probs - I will bring a '64 from me and a '72 for Ghandi - if anyone else needs a bottle, the '69 can also be brought.

Tom

Thank you. Original post updated. We have 4 decades of Vargellas to taste and 3 birthdays of immediate or close enough proximity to be worth toasting. 1 of these with a birth year port I believe!

Ben

Post by **jdaw1** » 02:28 Fri 13 Mar 2009

benread wrote:and 3 birthdays of immediate or close enough proximity to be worth toasting. 1 of these with a birth year port I believe!

Not Maximilian’s, presumably.

benread · Post by **benread** » 05:41 Fri 13 Mar 2009

jdaw1 wrote:
benread wrote:and 3 birthdays of immediate or close enough proximity to be worth toasting. 1 of these with a birth year port I believe!
Not Maximilian’s, presumably.

Maximilian is not quite close enough and already well toasted this year! The 3 I believe are AxelP (24th), myself (26th and known!) and DerekT (28th). I will leave you to guess which one has a birth year port in the line up!

Glenn E. · Post by **Glenn E.** » 03:40 Sat 14 Mar 2009

My birth year Port is in the lineup, but sadly I am unable to attend. Nor is my birthday close.

Ghandih · Post by **Ghandih** » 09:09 Mon 16 Mar 2009

benread wrote:The 3 I believe are AxelP (24th), myself (26th and known!) and DerekT (28th). I will leave you to guess which one has a birth year port in the line up!

Call me silly (I know you will), but I was somewhat bemused that Derek (being the only person in the listing I'm sure I've met - apologies to Ben and AxelP if I'm forgetting, but maybe I'd had a tipple or two?) was trying to pretend that it was his 28th birthday. He may be a chipper chat, but that's a bit ambitious, thought I. Then I realised those were the dates not the years.

That's the benefit of top-notch education, you see. You can usually figure out for yourself, and fairly quickly, what a plonker you are.

Uncle Tom, I confirm (at long last) a very strong wish to adopt your '72 - so kind of you - and I'm really looking forward to meeting you all (and some again). It's not far away now...

Ghandih

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 22:04 Mon 16 Mar 2009

Placemats updated; hopefully to reflect the state of play.

jdaw1 wrote:
Ghandih wrote:Julian, do reminder me sometime why the placemat software cares about my handedness? That already feels like taking itsy-bitsy-ness to the extreme.Ghandhi
Watercount boxes on right or left? Given that they are going to be somewhere, where should be a parameter.

It was all going so well, too:

: problem.png (2.46 KiB) Viewed 7880 times

Post by **jdaw1** » 00:19 Tue 17 Mar 2009

There are ugly high-tech solutions. Or you could just deem SRG to be a right-hander.

Ghandih · Post by **Ghandih** » 20:07 Tue 17 Mar 2009

Have I really managed to muck things up by joining in late and having the timerity to do so while simultaneously being left-handed? If so, I will drink a fine. That should teach me not to do it in the future.

I am happy to pretend not to be sinister, but it will only be pretending.

hGandi

Post by **jdaw1** » 20:38 Tue 17 Mar 2009

It’s ugly.
1. /RenderPagesSeparately false def, which will massively increase file size and distillation time.
2. /FooterLeftText [{WaterCountPositions SheetNum get /LowerRight eq {something} {something} ifelse}] def, and likewise for /FooterRightText with the somethings reversed, and equalling the current left and right footers.

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 10:02 Thu 19 Mar 2009

jdaw1 wrote:It’s ugly.
1. /RenderPagesSeparately false def, which will massively increase file size and distillation time.
2. /FooterLeftText [{WaterCountPositions SheetNum get /LowerRight eq {something} {something} ifelse}] def, and likewise for /FooterRightText with the somethings reversed, and equalling the current left and right footers.

Help...please.

Why does /RenderPagesSeparately need to be true (which is, I think, the default)? I would expect it to be false if we want one page to render in a different way?

I'm also afraid I'm not quite sure how the second statement works (I'm still trying to get my head around Postscript). Is this right?

/FooterLeftText [{ #starts the definition
WaterCountPositions SheetNum get #gets the value of WaterCountPositions for the current sheet
/LowerRight eq {something} #tests whether the value of WaterCountPositions is LowerRight; if so sets FooterLeftText to true
{something} ifelse}] def #defines the value of FooterLeftText if the test fails

If that is the case and the current left footer is /Agrave, the right footer is blank, I would expect
/FooterLeftText [{WaterCountPositions SheetNum get /LowerRight eq {/Agrave} {} ifelse}] def
/FooterRightText [{WaterCountPositions SheetNum get /LowerRight eq {} {/Agrave} ifelse}] def
to work. Unfortunately, it doesn't: we still end up with the /Agrave (the Vargellas logo in that font) on the left side of every page.

Post by **jdaw1** » 13:36 Thu 19 Mar 2009

Everybody else: probably best you look away.

JacobH wrote:Why does /RenderPagesSeparately need to be true (which is, I think, the default)? I would expect it to be false if we want one page to render in a different way?

Sorry, miswrote as did we both. You need /RenderPagesSeparately true def, the default being false. Each person has sheets that are identical, except for the name. To save time and space these things are computed once, but drawn many times, using the miracle of execform. But if the parameters are to contain code that mean their content varies by page, this should be disabled. Which means more computation, and the file is far larger.

Fix the /RenderPagesSeparately true def and you should be away.

WS1 · Post by **WS1** » 22:18 Thu 19 Mar 2009

Hi there,

after having had to overcome quite some significant "Muppettism" of the courier company I can report finally the standard bts of 1991 Vargellas arrived. So the worst case half bt of Vargellas 1991 from Axel in case the standard bts would not arrive in time can go back to the shelf

cu

next week

Wolfgang

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 09:43 Sat 21 Mar 2009

Placemats updated again, this time to include second guest bottle.

jdaw1, I still can’t get the switching of water checks to work. Would you mind looking at the postscript to tell me what I’m doing wrong?

Post by **jdaw1** » 13:44 Sat 21 Mar 2009

Apologies again. I send you untested code, and then surprise! it doesn’t work.

/FooterLeftText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerRight eq {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def
/FooterRightText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerLeft eq {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def

TPF red is 0.6 0 0 setrgbcolor. But printing in colour usually means printing with ink, which smudges gives the slightest trace of liquid. I recommend monotone toner.

On my computer, lacking the correct typefaces, it scales some of the circle texts. If it does that for you change MaxCircletextFontSizeAbsolute or MaxCircletextFontSizeProportionRadius.

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 18:49 Sun 22 Mar 2009

jdaw1 wrote:Apologies again. I send you untested code, and then surprise! it doesn’t work.

/FooterLeftText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerRight eq {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def
/FooterRightText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerLeft eq {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def

That works; many thanks. One slight problem, though; on the tasting note page, the initials default to the right side causing a clash when this code is used. Is there any way of getting a second test into the above code to ensure that FooterLeftText is not shown on the right if the page is a Tasting Note page? Or, alternatively, is there a way of getting the initials on the tasting note pages to appear in the middle?

jdaw1 wrote:TPF red is 0.6 0 0 setrgbcolor. But printing in colour usually means printing with ink, which smudges gives the slightest trace of liquid. I recommend monotone toner.

Thanks, will try that. I intend using a colour laser printer so I hope that there should be no trouble with colour (albeit a the expense of certain privacy issues).

jdaw1 wrote:On my computer, lacking the correct typefaces, it scales some of the circle texts. If it does that for you change MaxCircletextFontSizeAbsolute or MaxCircletextFontSizeProportionRadius.

Thanks; I don’t think that was a problem but I’ll need to check again.

Post by **jdaw1** » 19:38 Sun 22 Mar 2009

At my wife’s computer, so this code untested, but perhaps the following will help:
/FooterLeftText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerRight eq RenderingTastingNotesPages or {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def
/FooterRightText [{ThisPageDecanterLabels {} {WaterCountPositions NameNum get /LowerLeft eq RenderingTastingNotesPages not and {/Agrave} {} ifelse} ifelse}] def

Post by **jdaw1** » 20:58 Sun 22 Mar 2009

Also, I’m not a fan of the (+++)s.

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 21:13 Sun 22 Mar 2009

jdaw1 wrote:Also, I’m not a fan of the (+++)s.

I thought they were quite attractive...I think some sort of geometric decoration is worth having

Post by **jdaw1** » 21:27 Sun 22 Mar 2009

What about

/ShapesInTitles true def
/ShapesInSubtitles true def

? Or any one of the other possibilities?

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 10:00 Mon 23 Mar 2009

jdaw1 wrote:What about
/ShapesInTitles true def
/ShapesInSubtitles true def
? Or any one of the other possibilities?

Perhaps. I'll give it some further consideration tonight when I do the final draft!

Post by **DRT** » 17:44 Mon 23 Mar 2009

Sorry to interrupt the PostScript lesson

I thought it worth mentioning that I have just noticed that my Vargellas 1965s were all bottled in Oporto in 1968, 3 years after the vintage. This seems to have been a fairly standard thing for Taylor to do with Vargellas in those days. I wonder why?

benread · Post by **benread** » 18:51 Mon 23 Mar 2009

DRT wrote:Sorry to interrupt the PostScript lesson

I thought it worth mentioning that I have just noticed that my Vargellas 1965s were all bottled in Oporto in 1968, 3 years after the vintage. This seems to have been a fairly standard thing for Taylor to do with Vargellas in those days. I wonder why?

As was my 1967 - bottled in Oporto in 1970 (my birth year). This was also the origin of this tasting, JacobH's bottle of 1967 being bottled in 1969. Tomorrow will hopefull reveal the impact of this!

benread · Post by **benread** » 21:46 Mon 23 Mar 2009

A new thread has been created for reviews of this evening as a whole as well as individual bottle tasting notes.

Post by **jdaw1** » 22:16 Mon 23 Mar 2009

JacobH to provide the link to the placemats.

Axel P · Post by **Axel P** » 09:24 Tue 24 Mar 2009

Thanks, guys, for all the pms to my birthday. I wish you a very pleasant tasting tonight. All my thoughts, well: most of my thoughts are with you/ your Ports.

Axel

JacobH · Post by **JacobH** » 11:10 Tue 24 Mar 2009

Happy birthday, Axel!

Placemats continue to be at http://www.jacob-head.com/tpf/vargellas.pdf. The most recent version isn't online, yet, as the final lineup was only confirmed at 0757 this morning.