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I have three bottles with me:

• A peculiarity — a bottle of Fine Old Ruby bottled for Dickens Wine House of York. From the look of the bottle, this was probably bottled about 40 years ago. I suggest this should be Wine 1. It’s very pale.
• A bottle of Graham 1970 from Andy Milner’s cellar, which we will use to toast fallen friends. We should use this wine for our toast as soon as everyone has arrived.
• An unknown. Genuinely unknown. No clue to bottler, shipper or vintage. However, peer unknown bottles from this lot have been from the 1920s…

Is the unknown known to be a VP?

MigSU wrote: ↑12:55 Thu 12 Dec 2024 Is the unknown known to be a VP?

I’m deducing from the appearance of the bottle that it’s a VP. But it’s not a certainty.

As is customary every year on the day of the Christmas trip to Newport, I start the day with ample time to complete a sensible list of tasks. Then a wormhole opens and collapses the time continuum and I find myself running around like a headless chicken trying to finish things before travelling.

ETA at Crosskeys Hotel at 1630.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑12:49 Thu 12 Dec 2024 A bottle of Graham 1970 from Andy Milner’s cellar, which we will use to toast fallen friends. We should use this wine for our toast as soon as everyone has arrived.

Pour a glass for "those not present" so that we may also participate in the toast to Andy and other fallen friends.

ETA Newport Station 1744, clutching an unusual friend.

For the record, here's what we could discerne from the bottles this year:

1. G70
3. T194? perhaps 8
4. F22
5. Cr60
6. Nothing on the cork, likely (19th c) sherry, which I liked
7. T08
8. Unknown, nothing on the cork, but was port and nice
9. Mz22
10. Df45
11. Ck50
12. Bast_ardo 1927

Great lineup.

flash_uk wrote: ↑13:20 Sat 14 Dec 2024 For the record, here's what we could discerne from the bottles this year:

1. G70
3. T194? perhaps 8
4. F22
5. Cr60
6. Nothing on the cork, likely (19th c) sherry, which I liked
7. T08
8. Unknown, nothing on the cork, but was port and nice
9. Mz22
10. Df45
11. Ck50
12. Bast_ardo 1927

Quite a lineup! Was there a consensus WOTN?

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑18:11 Sat 14 Dec 2024
Quite a lineup! Was there a consensus WOTN?

Alex will likely post the WOTN scoring. From memory, F22 was top.

F22 followed by B’do 27, as I recall.

The Ck50 was a spectacular undisturbed example.

#2 was Dicken’s Fine Old Ruby, bottled for the Dickens Wine House in York, probably in the 1980s.

It was drinkable, but not quite as good as the Fonseca 1922.

Out of interest, for those who stayed at the Cross Keys, how do you feel this worked compared to the Cricketers Arms? It was certainly easier to get a taxi from / to Saffron Walden.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑18:43 Wed 08 Jan 2025 Out of interest, for those who stayed at the Cross Keys, how do you feel this worked compared to the Cricketers Arms? It was certainly easier to get a taxi from / to Saffron Walden.

I thought it was spot on, Alex. Breakfast was very good (as is Cricketers), room at Crosskeys I would say was slightly preferred as it was warmer.