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A very enjoyable evening indeed with some fine wines and a good meal shared with Daniel, Rachel, Alistair and Mildred.

Unusually for tastings reported on this forum there was only one Port consumed - Churchill's Agua Alta 1987. This showed very well for what it is. I found it a little imbalanced in terms of high acidity and slightly stewed fruit but neither of those characteristics were overpowering and it is an enjoyable wine at its price point.

There were a number of clarets on the table, the best being a Pontet Canet 1978, which was beautiful.

In addition to a very fine Gran Cru Chablis and a couple of clarets, Alistair provided some curiosities including a "Roman wine" seemingly produced in a style similar to that used in those times. Very interesting, if not exactly my preferred style.

I provided a Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 2001 which survived the turbulent flight from Manchester and seemed to be well received by the other attendees.

Thank you to Daniel for nearly organising a tasting next week, and successfully organising this substitute event.

This thread was discussed more than once during the evening.

I was originally scheduled to have a tasting this coming weekend (Nov 21st), but many factors combined to make this impossible. Derek being in the country, I contacted Alistair and Mildred, friends in the NI Wine & Spirits Institute for whom I've organised port tastings in the past, and Rachel came along as well. We had a small selection for the five of us:

I didn't take notes but the next day I had a headache.
It was a great shame that Justin was unavoidably unable to join us, but we expect to meet up soon and make up for this.

DRT wrote:This thread was discussed more than once during the evening.

I think I might have been wrong about something but since I can't remember what, it never really happened.