2019: 1991 Horizontal, Mon 09 Dec, at The B&F

[jdaw1]

A horizontal of 1991s, some Vintage, some Single-Quinta, on Monday 9^th December 2019, at The Boot & Flogger, as arranged by GEAG.

Links:

• Review of the event as a whole;
• Tasting notes:
  • Dow;
  • Graham;
  • Warre;
  • Quinta do Vesuvio;
  • Smith Woodhouse;
  • Gould Campbell;
  • Cockburn;
  • Cockburn Quinta dos Canais;
  • Taylor Quinta de Vargellas;
  • Fonseca Guimaraens;
  • Croft;
  • Morgan;
  • Quinta do Noval;
  • Quinta do Noval Nacional;
  • Quinta de la Rosa;
  • Niepoort;
• Placemats (and in the list of placemats);
• Planning and arrangements.

[PhilW]

WOTN scoring

[winesecretary]

Thank you to all attending and all contributing. A fascinating evening. My initial contention, that 1991 was perhaps unfairly under-regarded as a vintage, was disproved. It is entirely fairly under-regarded. There are a good many pleasant ports but few of great distinction. As usual, the scoring slightly over-rewards the top two, but they were both rather good. I would be happy, but not delighted, to own the next five. And I think the Morgan and the Noval, both decent ports, suffered unduly in the scoring.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Thank you George for organizing the tasting and the theme. I enjoy opportunities to taste vintages in the way we did last night. I had a quick look through my cellar list this morning to see what, if any, 1991 Port I own. I am quite pleased to see I own 6 bottles of Dow, 1 of Graham, some Morgan, some Niepoort, 3 Poças, a bit of Vesuvio and 1 bottle of Warre. I am not disappointed by this and consider this to be adequate stocks of a vintage to be drunk sooner rather than later.

[flash_uk]

Thanks to George for getting us organised on this one. Aside from three ports that were flawed in some ways, the rest were enjoyable though unremarkable. The Croft and the Vargellas were both a notch above the rest of the field, most of which had sweetness and red fruit, but lacked some weight and will be unlikely to make old bones.

[nac]

My thanks also to George for organising. A very informative tasting, with a few very good wines. As possibly previously suggested don't think I'm going to be searching out any more 91s and will definitely be drinking the other bottle of CkC soon (although not suspecting that's it's going to be any better).

BTW to jdaw1, the WOTN scores for myself and NA appear to have been transposed.

[jdaw1]

BTW to jdaw1, the WOTN scores for myself and NA appear to have been transposed.

Sorry. It’s not easy for the prosopagnosic.

As others have said, praise to George for organising. I did not have a clear mental map of this vintage, and now I do. The ’91s are reasonable drinking, but not a vintage of the first rank. Thank you.

[winesecretary]

Thank you for the encomia which are much appreciated, especially since it was my first time organising a tasting for this group.

It was both enjoyable and interesting. Deriving a 'mental map' of the vintage is a very good way to describe it; especially because it told me that my vague view on this vintage, derived from a glass or bottle here or there, was wrong.

There are several more tastings in my mind for the next couple of years...

[Chris Doty]

Thank you George for organizing the tasting and the theme.

I enjoy opportunities to taste vintages in the way we did last night.

(A) vintage to be drunk sooner rather than later.

You crack me up alex. Just when I think I have you totally figured out, you throw me a dead wicked googly. Given that the unanimous (?) Opinion was the vintage is not something we need to knock gran out the way to secure, I figured you'd hold any you had until Redemption and see what happens.

As I require primary fruit to give a port top marks, I too will be depleting what 1991 I have (mainly 375s of the fonseca with some dow and graham). I missed the Morgan train by a few years, for 9 pounds , waive it in!

That no one has mentioned the nacional is itself damning. Thanks to W.S for contributing with a hattip to Daryl for ferryin. it tied the room together, did it not? I had initially feared a risk of a sighted tasting would be groupthink and in particular unwarranted praise of the nn. whereas the regular bottling exceeded my low expectations, the nn fell well short of.... some expectations. In particular, I associate the house style of the nn to be a "grippyness" a textured cheweyness in the mouth. This feature was not at all present on this occasion. At a noval evening a Berry's ages ago, c.s. All but disclaimed wines of this era. always a treat to drink due to scarcity, but on the merits this only serves to remind us that you leave your self little upside when you pay tipptytop dollar for wine. Though this price in bdx is table stakes for "serious" chateau.

Shout out to Nick a, an old fellow traveller from homepages - we were at opposite ends of the table but glad all seems well there. Ditto flash.

Deep vintage forn average night of port. There's a price and a place for that. But with the prices of 92s , this reinforces an early hypothesis that 2000 is the key vintage to own for consumption between 1970 and 2011. Ymmv.

Awesome seeing everyone. I was heroic just prior to this event when I made change for a fair maid at a nearby wineshop - a plug for laithwaits, soon to be gone forever from their longstanding lease by the thames. Bolly s.c. Was 32. A fair price, I dare say. Pol roger at 39 would have been my other choice. Their port selection is not robust. Two weeks left?!