Page 3 of 4
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:05 Mon 28 Mar 2011
by DRT
A plea:
Please bring all of the tasting sample bottles you have. There will be more ports in the line-up than the average man can consume in a four hour period. Some participants might choose to take some home to taste later and your assistance in providing suitable containers will be appreciated.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:28 Mon 28 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Updated
draft of placemats.
- +1975.
- Changed to one session, as that is how it will be set out. It does not mean that we must drink it in one swift sitting.
- As arrangement details unknown, /WaterCountsOverrideShowEverySheet true def.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:35 Mon 28 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:As arrangement details unknown, /WaterCountsOverrideShowEverySheet true def.
Good call.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:38 Mon 28 Mar 2011
by DRT
Latest line-up...
1933 Fonseca Guimaraens
1942 Fonseca Guimaraens
1957 Fonseca Guimaraens
1960 Fonseca
1961 Fonseca Guimaraens
1965 Fonseca Guimaraens
1966 Fonseca
1967 Fonseca Guimaraens
1968 Fonseca Guimaraens
1970 Fonseca
1972 Fonseca Guimaraens
1975 Fonseca
1976 Fonseca Guimaraens
1977 Fonseca
1978 Fonseca Guimaraens
1982 Fonseca Guimaraens
1984 Fonseca Guimaraens
1985 Fonseca
1986 Fonseca Guimaraens
1987 Fonseca Guimaraens
1988 Fonseca Guimaraens
1991 Fonseca Guimaraens
1992 Fonseca
1995 Fonseca Guimaraens
1996 Fonseca Guimaraens
1998 Fonseca Guimaraens
2000 Fonseca
2001 Fonseca Guimaraens
2004 Fonseca Guimaraens
2005 Fonseca Guimaraens
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 03:14 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by Andy Velebil
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 18:03 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by Axel P
Me too, this will be fantastic. Well done, guys.
Axel
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:28 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Who is to print the
placemats?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:42 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by DRT
Rob is printing and bringing to TCP on Sunday.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:43 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by DRT
A number of good fellows have agreed to chip-in and add a 1955. Please update placemats.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:54 Tue 29 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Updated
draft of placemats.
Also uploaded is a file with almost the same name, ‟.ps” replacing ‟.pdf”. If a last-moment change should be needed and be beyond my powers, I might seek help from those with expertise.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 00:16 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
A major disaster has occurred. I have just visited my wine fridge to extract the bottles I need for the coming week and one that I thought I had seems to have been removed at some unknown earlier date. I must apologise profusely.
No doubt you will all be devastated to know that the F75 will not appear in the line-up. Sorry.

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 08:33 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
You’ve lost the 1975! The Fonseca 1975?
The Wine Society’s Vintage Port offer in February 1978, at £4.90 per bottle, wrote:full and fruity wine that will make a lovely bottle at the end of the next decade
You’ve lost it. Plonker!
Updated
draft of placemats.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 09:58 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Folks: please don’t forget to bring a writing implement, and also some sample bottles.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 10:59 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by RAYC
DRT wrote:No doubt you will all be devastated to know that the F75 will not appear in the line-up. Sorry.

Well...at least that's a defense to the charge that things may have got a little carried away...!
The '55 is a fabulous addition though.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 11:27 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Now at thirty Ports, and fourteen people:with a few spare we will need 440ish glasses. Should the RAF club be forewarned of this?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 12:59 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by JacobH
jdaw1 wrote:Now at thirty Ports, and fourteen people:with a few spare we will need 440ish glasses. Should the RAF club be forewarned of this?
I think probably yes...
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 13:12 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by Andy Velebil
DRT wrote:A major disaster has occurred. I have just visited my wine fridge to extract the bottles I need for the coming week and one that I thought I had seems to have been removed at some unknown earlier date. I must apologise profusely.
No doubt you will all be devastated to know that the F75 will not appear in the line-up. Sorry.

OMG, whatever shall we do? The tasting may need to be canceled without such a bottle present
Great news on the 1955 and thank you to those who contributed

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 16:31 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:Now at thirty Ports, and fourteen people:with a few spare we will need 440ish glasses. Should the RAF club be forewarned of this?
Good point!
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 16:33 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:You’ve lost the 1975! The Fonseca 1975?
The Wine Society’s Vintage Port offer in February 1978, at £4.90 per bottle, wrote:full and fruity wine that will make a lovely bottle at the end of the next decade
You’ve lost it. Plonker!
Updated
draft of placemats.
I don't think lost is the correct word. I was there at some point in the not too distant past. It isn't there now. What might have happened?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:23 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
DRT wrote:What might have happened?
Perhaps bug-eyed high-technology space aliens teleported it to their planet for use in a, what to us would be very bizarre, mass mating ritual.
Perhaps.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 18:36 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:DRT wrote:What might have happened?
Perhaps bug-eyed high-technology space aliens teleported it to their planet for use in a, what to us would be very bizarre, mass mating ritual.
Perhaps.
I'm so glad you have come up with a plausible explanation. I was starting to think I might have got whammed one night, drunk it and then forgotten all about it. Your story sounds much more likely.
Great news!!
I've just found it! 
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 20:28 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Is Adrian Bridge right- or left-handed?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 20:45 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:Is Adrian Bridge right- or left-handed?
I will ask.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:32 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:48 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:I will post these links again on the new page that is about to start.
When?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:50 Wed 30 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Review and tasting-note threads created.
(These links were posted two posts ago, but are now at the start of this new page.)
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 07:06 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
IMPORTANT
1. The tasting will commence at 18:30 and we have lots to get through so please, if at all possible, do not be late.”
2. Could those who have volunteered to help with glass-washing duty please report to Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman at 2pm at The RAF Club. Those who have volunteered will receive an email confirming arrangements shortly.
3. Could all others please note that we now have more than enough hands to cope with the preparations so please arrive no earlier than 18:00 and no later than 18:25. If you do arrive early there is a waiting room just around the corner, opposite the Hard Rock Cafe, which serves a delightful range of pre-tasting refreshments.
” AHB has handed in a note from his Mum asking for special dispensation to be late as he has forgotten his gym kit and needs to collect it from his Gran's house in Milton Keynes after school.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 07:21 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by Axel P
DRT wrote:Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman
The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...
Axel
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 07:37 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
Axel P wrote:DRT wrote:Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman
The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...
Axel
Clearly there is a problem with the slowness of Luftwaffe intelligence

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 07:57 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Would people be terribly upset if I were to donate a bottle of 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal, to compare to the
1998 Fonseca Guimaraens?
Updated
draft of placemats.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 07:58 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:Would people be terribly upset if I were to donate a bottle of 1998 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal, to compare to the
1998 Fonseca Guimaraens?
Alex, I know what you are thinking. I deny everything.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 09:27 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
If an official emergency were declared and I’m willing to declare it I could ask whether
Hailsham Cellars would be able to post a 19
96 Fonseca Quinta do Panascal to the RAF Club. Again, would anybody be very upset? (Minor upset doesn’t matter.)
Edit: cancel that. A phone call produced the answer ‟We are on the ’98 now”.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 11:16 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by JacobH
DRT wrote:Axel P wrote:DRT wrote:Brigadier-General J. D. A. Wiseman
The last email I received showed "staff sergeant" as the current rank of Mr. Wiseman. Things go fast these days in the royal armed forces...
Axel
Clearly there is a problem with the slowness of Luftwaffe intelligence

Especially since, going by the date the rank of Brigadier-General was abolished, JDAW would have held it for approximately 90 years.
Or is he secretly a Canadian?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 13:09 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by Andy Velebil
As soldiers we must be prepared in the event a tragedy occurs involving a rouge cork tree and all back ups must be in decanted and poured just in case. New environmental rules also dictate nothing goes to waste

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 16:54 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
EMERGENCY!!!!
I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005
Does anyone have one hidden under the floorboards, in a cupboard, anywhere?
I have searched all the online places I know and get only one hit, which turns out to be "Out of Stock".
Please look in all the usual places you normally look when searching for port. Time is short.
Tom, don't trust your database. Go and look at all 3,000 labels in your cellar. I'm sure I saw one in there last time I visited.
Oh, and while you are all looking, please shout if you see the 64, 62, 58, 54, 52, 46, 44 or 31

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:28 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
DRT wrote:IMPORTANT
DRT wrote:EMERGENCY!!!!
It is for the reader to judge relative gravity.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:32 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:DRT wrote:IMPORTANT
DRT wrote:EMERGENCY!!!!
It is for the reader to judge relative gravity.
Yes. Some posts on this forum sometimes drift slightly away from being completely serious so I wanted to draw attention to these two particular posts in case people skimmed over them thinking that they might not be life-threatening issues.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:44 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by JacobH
DRT wrote:I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005
Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:47 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by DRT
JacobH wrote:DRT wrote:I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005
Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

Dear God! It's worse than I thought. We need two of everything!!!!
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:56 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by JacobH
DRT wrote:JacobH wrote:DRT wrote:I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005
Presumably this also means we will also be unable to do the definitive horizontal of all 1974 Vintage Port?

Dear God! It's worse than I thought. We need two of everything!!!!
If we could locate a Dow and Vargellas ’72 and the 1974 we could top off the ‟most definitive FG tasting, ever”, with ‟the most definitive ’72 and ’74 tastings, ever”...
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 18:46 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 21:38 Thu 31 Mar 2011
by jdaw1
DRT wrote:I have just realised that we do not have an FG74. This is the only gap in the FG line-up from 1965 to 2005
Of course gaining the FG64 makes the problem worse, as it widens the range over which FG74 is the only gap: now from 1964 to 2005. So finding the ’74 has become even more important.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 14:05 Fri 01 Apr 2011
by DRT
FG64 is now in my possession.

Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 06:04 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by jdaw1
FP98 in mine.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 06:45 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:FP98 in mine.
Could you spare 13 small samples, please? I promise you will have sufficient left for yourself.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 15:08 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by jdaw1
F66: I’ve looked in the place where the Fonseca 1966 was meant to be, and what was there was a bottle of Fonseca 1966. That bullet successfully dodged.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 16:14 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by JacobH
Should the title be updated to note that there is a bottle of Panascal included? Also, is the wine-of-the-night page too dense to be practical (a genuine question: I haven’t tried printing it to see)?
Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 17:46 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by jdaw1
JacobH wrote:Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.
Not so. The printing is of the PDF, which has been distilled. The calculations for each page have been done. (Average page size: only 4k!)
Vote recorder: if too dense, the second (‟Q:”) session-voting pages could be used. Between the six voting pages something should work.
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 22:33 Sat 02 Apr 2011
by JacobH
jdaw1 wrote:JacobH wrote:Rob: a word of warning; if you try printing this on a Postscript printer it may take several hours to print. It might be worth doing a test run to gauge speed in the morning.
Not so. The printing is of the PDF, which has been distilled. The calculations for each page have been done. (Average page size: only 4k!)
I have replied
in the placemat thread on the basis that it is probably more relevant there.
jdaw1 wrote:Vote recorder: if too dense, the second (‟Q:”) session-voting pages could be used. Between the six voting pages something should work.
Ah, true.
PS. I forgot to mention that the debugging output is attached as the very last page of the document: should it be there?
Re: A birthday tasting 2011 - 4th April 2011
Posted: 08:06 Sun 03 Apr 2011
by jdaw1
JacobH wrote:I forgot to mention that the debugging output is attached as the very last page of the document: should it be there?
I saw no harm, and possible small gain if somebody else (you?) had to make some last-moment alteration.