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It's been a while since our last online tasting and I've missed catching up with folks not able to make it to London.

I propose an online tasting at 18.30 on Thursday 30th March. Probably using Teams since I don't have a paid for subscription for Zoom at the moment.

Any takers?

1. Alex B (sent)
2. Miguel S (sent)
3. Simon D (sent)
4. Glenn E (sent)
5. Charles R (sent)
6. Mike W (sent by PM)
7. Justin K (sent)
8. Dia G (sent by PM)
9. Neil C (possible) (sent)
10. Jacob H (possible) (sent)
11. Tony C (sent)
12. Stewart T (sent)
13. Andy V (possible) (sent)

I'm in. I got the taste for it, now.

Sounds good… thank you Alex, please count me in.

I'm in! I have a paid Zoom account and can host if people would prefer Zoom. For now, at least, I have no meetings scheduled during the day on March 30.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑17:49 Thu 09 Feb 2023I don't have a paid for subscription for Zoom at the moment.

I think that Mrs W. does.

And yes please.

Time difference to Bhutan probably makes this a 'no' for me. Have a lovely time all!

yes please - great to see our non London Port drinkers

I'd love to join. Plenty of free time now that I'm retired.

@ Mike J. W. - congratulations!

winesecretary wrote: ↑18:43 Fri 10 Feb 2023 @ Mike J. W. - congratulations!

Thanks. It was a long time coming.

Sure you’d have to

I am definitely up for that

Possibly away that week, so a "maybe".

I'm away this week.

Yes please!

I’ll put it on the calendar, but as the 8 hr time change not sure I’ll be able to get day off work yet. At worst, I may be able to join for a bit just to say hi during a work break.

Andy Velebil wrote: ↑15:14 Fri 17 Feb 2023 I’ll put it on the calendar, but as the 8 hr time change not sure I’ll be able to get day off work yet. At worst, I may be able to join for a bit just to say hi during a work break.

What, you can't just have Zoom on a side monitor and sit there and drink Port at your desk like I do?

Glenn E. wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote: ↑15:14 Fri 17 Feb 2023 I’ll put it on the calendar, but as the 8 hr time change not sure I’ll be able to get day off work yet. At worst, I may be able to join for a bit just to say hi during a work break.

What, you can't just have Zoom on a side monitor and sit there and drink Port at your desk like I do?

Since I could care less about my work. Maybe. Lol

In addition to receiving meager allotments of vacation here in the US compared to those of you in the UK/EU, we're often capped on the amount that we can have saved up at any given time. I am (once again) approaching that limit and am considering taking the Thursday off for this tasting.

Are we still on? This would be as good of an excuse as any to take the day off.

I'm assuming this is still on, but confirmation would be nice.

How does this format work? We pick our own Port, I assume?

Sometimes we have a loose theme - IIRC we've done whites and LBVs before - but most of the time it's just bring something to drink and chat with friends.

Yes, this is definitely still on! I dropped out of the Cavadinha tasting partly because I could still see people on the 30th.

It's a loose theme. Open something that you'll enjoy while chatting to friends. I shall probably use the evening as an opportunity to finish up some bottles I've got open at the moment - all Colheita or TWIoA.

Is anyone willing and able to host us on Zoom, and to send out the Zoom invites?

Could I be put down as a “maybe”? I’m currently down to be either in Leeds or Birmingham during the day so I am not sure I will make it home in time but will try to join you if possible.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑22:16 Wed 22 Mar 2023 Is anyone willing and able to host us on Zoom, and to send out the Zoom invites?

I have a paid account and am happy to host, but it might degrade performance to have the host in Seattle and just about everyone else in London.

I'm not sure that I have contact information for everyone, though, so if I am to host perhaps I should send the invite to someone else and they can distribute it? Or I suppose I could send PMs to everyone through TPF.

JacobH wrote: ↑17:46 Thu 23 Mar 2023 Could I be put down as a “maybe”? I’m currently down to be either in Leeds or Birmingham during the day so I am not sure I will make it home in time but will try to join you if possible.

If you’re travelling by train, you would not be the first person to take part in one of our Zoom calls whilst en route.

Glenn E. wrote: ↑17:55 Thu 23 Mar 2023

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑22:16 Wed 22 Mar 2023 Is anyone willing and able to host us on Zoom, and to send out the Zoom invites?

I have a paid account and am happy to host, but it might degrade performance to have the host in Seattle and just about everyone else in London.

I'm not sure that I have contact information for everyone, though, so if I am to host perhaps I should send the invite to someone else and they can distribute it? Or I suppose I could send PMs to everyone through TPF.

Thank you. It looks like you’re the only person with a paid account - so your offer to host is gratefully accepted.

If you drop me the invite I’ll forward them on.

Alex - please can you send me a link. I will be with João in q St Luiz that evening - would be nice to say hello

forest26 wrote: ↑17:45 Mon 27 Mar 2023 Alex - please can you send me a link. I will be with João in q St Luiz that evening - would be nice to say hello

That's just showing off!

I'm sending the link out tomorrow. I'll make sure that I include you on the list.

I've set up the meeting to begin at (I hope) 6:00 pm London time, but it's now beginning to look like I have a meeting from 10-11 Pacific time that I really cannot skip. I'll post here as I get further information, but it looks like we may need to delay the start until 7:00 pm London time.

(I was going to take the day off, but this meeting is important enough that I'll need to attend even though I'm technically off work.)

I have a free Zoom account, which gives me the ability to host meetings for up to 40 minutes.

Given Glenn has a meeting running until 11am / 7pm UK I'll set up a meeting for us to get together at 6.30pm UK.

Once Glenn is finished, we can switch over to his account and continue for as long as we want.

Invitations will go out shortly.

Invites have gone out by:

• email to those whose email addresses I know,
• where I don't know your email, by WhatsApp where we are in contact that way, and
• private message on TPF where I have no other way to contact you

please can you send me an invite, just in case i can join later in the evening. thanks

Great, thanks Alex.

Could I also get invite...thx!

flash_uk wrote: ↑11:50 Tue 28 Mar 2023 Could I also get invite...thx!

hadge wrote: ↑09:58 Tue 28 Mar 2023 please can you send me an invite, just in case i can join later in the evening. thanks

Done. Should be in your mailboxes now.

If there’s room on the screen could you put me down for this and send the details across please Alex? Thanks.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑09:06 Tue 28 Mar 2023 I have a free Zoom account, which gives me the ability to host meetings for up to 40 minutes.

Given Glenn has a meeting running until 11am / 7pm UK I'll set up a meeting for us to get together at 6.30pm UK.

Once Glenn is finished, we can switch over to his account and continue for as long as we want.

Invitations will go out shortly.

My conflict is now confirmed. The organizer says that these meetings typically take 30-45 minutes, so we should be done before 11. Once that meeting has wrapped up, I'll join Alex's pre-funk long enough to let you all know, and then I'll start the full meeting.

Should we reveal what we're all opening?

I was perusing my cellar for something interesting to open and thought it'd be fun to open something that was approaching an age expressed by a nice, round number (by which my OCD means a number ending with a zero). I soon realised that a) I'm not rich enough to spend a wallop on a sub-sub-par wine just because it's a rarity (looking at you, Liceiras 1993), and b) I don't have anything from the 20th century ending in a three (OK, I have a Casa do Douro Colheita 1963, but I feel like opening a VP). That pretty much left me with only one choice: the 2003 VPs. Looking at what I have, not wanting to open anything that would be *too* young, and considering I'll be the only one drinking this particular bottle, I settled on something that probably not many here have tasted: a Quinta das Tecedeiras 2003, on a half bottle. It's been standing upright for a few days, now, and I'll open it this evening to do some QA and start the decanting process (I might rebottle it tomorrow, depending on how it's behaving).


Now, if the answer to my original question is "No", then please disregard the previous paragraph

I don't think there's any need to keep them secret - it's not like we're all gathering in one place for a blind tasting!

I have a 10 Year Old S. Leonardo White Port open, and if that turns out to be insufficient I'll probably open a 1995 or 1997 Porto Souza VP.

idj123 wrote: ↑09:11 Wed 29 Mar 2023 If there’s room on the screen could you put me down for this and send the details across please Alex? Thanks.

Done. Should be in your (work) inbox shortly.

I've got a bottle of Fonseca Crusted, bottled in 2001 to drink tomorrow night. I'll open it in the morning, decant it around lunchtime and hope it shows well around dinner time. It has a good chance of doing so. If Fonseca follow the usual pattern of Crusted Port, a decent proportion of it should be juice from 2000 blended with 1999 and some 1998.

My meeting is dragging a bit... looks like it's going to take the full hour rather than the hoped-for 45 min.

I don't see anyone in the pre-meeting. Is anyone on?

Their were 2 meeting links in the invite we are in the main one which was lower down

Sent from my SM-S911B using Tapatalk

Pre-meeting is over, we're now in the full meeting. Second link in the message from Alex.

My apologies for leaving abruptly. I went out to lock the outer gate and re-entered the living room just in time to see my computer go into hibernation mode. I forgot to plug it in!

Anyway, great to see familiar faces and meet new ones, great chat all around. Cheers!

It was great putting names to the faces tonight. Thank you all for being so gracious and putting up with a Port newbie. Listening to you all talk, your knowledge is extensive and impressive. My apologies for butchering some of the names of the Port. I'll learn...eventually. Thanks all.

Sorry to not have joined. Given the time difference to west coast, work got unexpectedly very busy and I wasn’t able to pop in for a bit to say hi. I’ll try for the next one.

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑22:33 Thu 30 Mar 2023 It was great putting names to the faces tonight. Thank you all for being so gracious and putting up with a Port newbie. Listening to you all talk, your knowledge is extensive and impressive. My apologies for butchering some of the names of the Port. I'll learn...eventually. Thanks all.

I have quite a lot of fun watching Miguel’s face when we speak the names of the Quintas or the producers. He must be a better poker player these days since he’s not wincing so visibly as he used to. Or maybe - just maybe - we’re getting a tiny bit better.