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A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 19:56 Sun 01 Mar 2009
by jdaw1
AHB started a thread, seemingly in jest, entitled
A complete vertical of 20th century vintages of Taylor. The conversation went downhill from there. But:
jdaw1 wrote:My UK stocks include 1912 1924 1927 1948 1955 1963 1970 1977 1980 1985 and, though it probably wouldn’t be needed, 1985 in magnum.
jdaw1 wrote:We’d need a long weekend.
Andy V wrote:Yeah that would be a fun weekend....if it ever happens let me know I'd fly out for that one for sure.
Andy V wrote:oldest taylors is a 1920 vp
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 19:57 Sun 01 Mar 2009
by jdaw1
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 19:59 Sun 01 Mar 2009
by jdaw1
Axel P wrote:I am definitely in on this one. Who is wearing the organisational hat? We definitely need a frame for this tasting. I am fully open to everything involved though not being able to contribute anything else than some connections to the house and all the following VPs.
T: 83, 85,92, 94, 97, 00 full and Mg., 03 half and full
T V V: 00
T TF: 88, 99, 05
T V: 91 Half and Full, 95, 96, 05
I suppose we keep it on our side of the ocean???
Axel
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 22:44 Sun 01 Mar 2009
by DRT
Now that we are to be serious, and following on from comments made by JacobH in
the other thread, I do not think that this is a viable event in 2009 given that we have a Vargellas Vertical and the Taylor Fladgate v Symington head-to-head already planned this year. Perhaps one for a future year?
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 23:30 Sun 01 Mar 2009
by Andy Velebil
Derek is 100% right. If this moves into actual planning stages then it would have to be sometime in late 2010 or later. I'd suggest right after the 2010 Harvest Tour as many of us Yanks will already be over on that side of the pond and it would make it much easier on us. Plus it would give plenty of time to organize it and aquire bottles.
But even with all of us, it will take a long time to plan and even longer to locate older and rare bottles. I would suggest that people start looking around and try to aquire some of these older more obscure bottles in case this moves to actually happening. I dare say an event this size would also garner the attention of TFP and I'm sure someone there would love to come and be part of something so large and complete. Lets face it, there has NEVER been a VP tasting so large and complete and their help would surely be needed to aquire some of those very rare bottles.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 08:58 Mon 02 Mar 2009
by RonnieRoots
In an ideal world this tasting would be organised at either the Taylor lodge in Oporto or at Quinta de Vargellas.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 15:51 Mon 02 Mar 2009
by DRT
RonnieRoots wrote:
In an ideal world this tasting would be organised at either the Taylor lodge in Oporto or at Quinta de Vargellas.
In an ideal world I would live in one of those places
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 19:47 Mon 02 Mar 2009
by Axel P
But shouldnt we at least try to. Maybe that is some tasting we should try to convince the Taylors side to.
My poor collection just got extended by a Vargellas 76.
Axel
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 20:17 Mon 02 Mar 2009
by Glenn E.
DRT wrote:RonnieRoots wrote:
In an ideal world this tasting would be organised at either the Taylor lodge in Oporto or at Quinta de Vargellas.
In an ideal world I would live in one of those places
In an ideal world there would be a world-wide transporter system so that we wouldn't have to worry about it.
Since I would have to cross the pond to attend this event regardless, I think we should at least investigate the possibility of holding it at the Taylor lodge. And possibly also getting TFP's assistance in acquiring bottles. After the smashing success of the Cockburn's vertical, I would that that TFP would be interested in actively helping any future endeavors.
And yes, you may assume this means I'm interested in attending.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 13:09 Thu 18 Jun 2009
by Ghandih
Hello all,
Taylor was, until Fonseca hove into view at the F-Plan tasting, my favouritest port, so I would very much like to be on the list of eager attendees. I also have more Taylor than any other port, having been given several bottles of T85 as wedding presents. However, we did promise we'd drink that with the folk who bought it for us, so I'm probably in the market for sponsoring a bottle.
It would make things easier for me if we held the tasting in the UK - and would mean we don't have to try to transport most of the ports to foreign climes. I like the idea of lining it up shortly after the harvest, to assist the attendance of our American friends. Can we tentatively agree an Autumn 2010 date in the UK?
As to the format itself, I initially struggled to understand how we could organise a really deep tasting, since this implies bottles from a large number of years, which suggests a large number of attendees to drink it all, which means each bottle has to stretch a long way and we only get a thimble-full. The best way to combat that is to double-up (or more) on each bottle, so that we have enough of each port for the number of people attending (although it may mean we each have more port to drink than we can manage, if that's possible?). One alternative is to split the rarer vintages, so, perhaps, I get to taste the TQdV1905 but not the TQdV1907, and vice versa for you. Are there other alternatives?
In order to move this forward, I suggest we need to build next to Derek's catalogue of ports how many of each we have between us. That will help us figure how many vintages we may be able to gather, and so how many people ought attend, and so what calibre of venue we might require.
Does that make sense?
hGandi
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 16:32 Thu 18 Jun 2009
by jdaw1
Ghandih wrote:As to the format itself, I initially struggled to understand how we could organise a really deep tasting, since this implies bottles from a large number of years, which suggests a large number of attendees to drink it all, which means each bottle has to stretch a long way and we only get a thimble-full.
Fourteen people. Multiple sessions. Afternoon and evening every day for however many days it takes. Probably eight sessions of 13 or 14 per session.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 21:18 Thu 18 Jun 2009
by Alex Bridgeman
I agree with JDAW's proposed format. Maximum of 14 people per bottle, multiple tasting sessions although I suspect that any extended series of tastings would also mean the 14 people would be different from session to session.
Compiling the list of available vintage would be more of a challenge. If it's one you would be willing to take on, the best way to go about this would be in private, using PM or email.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 22:59 Thu 18 Jun 2009
by WS1
Hi there,
I am also interested in this event, however I do not own a lot of Taylors Port (55 and 03, VV 00 and 04, Vargellas 91 and TF 99). Please count me in if still possible. Overall I would like also to warn in advance that this maybe stretching it. Despite I accept the heavy disagreement of DRT and JDAW1 in advance in probably claiming pints of beer would help to refreshen the reflexes in case of tiredness of the palate and the organic bit called body
I would be still worried about the magnitude
.
Despite it is not strictly port related the biggest tasting I went in my life was a 100 bts of Chateauneuf du Pape tasting before 1979 (inclusive). We started with the oldest wines up to 1950 and then had as a second flight wines from 1950 onwards to the 1970s. All wines of the supposed star vinatge 1978 were kept in a separate flight. The remaining vintages were split accordingly into flights. The tasting was split over two weekends starting Friday evening with Saturday afternoon and evening session. Overall it became a marathon after the organiser thought it also would be a good idea to add another 136 wines ( out of 2005, 2006 and 2007) in a walk through tasting on one of the sunday's afternoon to taste the difference in the making of the young wines vs the "oldies".
To try ~100 Ports in probably 6 flights (if I understood correctly) would mean to start the tasting on friday afternoon and be finished by sunday late night. May I suggest instead to limit the bts to a huge number (tasting still very large) but being a more realistic number and stop e.g. at the 1980 vintage? This would also nicly splitting the younger Ports from the old ones.
Please see this not as someone trying to spoil an excellent idea. See it rather as the contribution of someone who coorganised the 1970 vertical (35 Ports) and experienced the tiredness of going through hundreds of wines. Ports will be even harder. Despite its appeal
I feel we should not overdo it.
Also an additional walk through tasting of young vintage ports (maybe 2008s) after the official tasting following the idea of my friend with the Chateauneufs I would strongly reject as being too self destructive.
regards
WS1
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 03:03 Fri 19 Jun 2009
by g-man
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 07:19 Sat 20 Jun 2009
by Axel P
So, what will it be. Just discussion or shall we move on to a more serious step. I will see my Taylors contact next week after the tasting in Oporto. Shall I put on the topic to see how the reaction will be?
Topic: Tasting of all available Taylors VP
Timeframe: October 2010
People attending: 14 (however we have to leave 1-2 spaces to someone from Taylors, I assume)
Axel
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 10:45 Sat 20 Jun 2009
by jdaw1
People:
- Taylor-Fladgate representative (1);
- Taylor-Fladgate representative (2);
- jdaw1;
- DRT;
- Andy V;
- Axel P;
- Glenn E.;
- Ghandih;
- AHB;
- WS1;
- JacobH;
- marc j.;
- VJR.
(People added based on following three posts.)
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 22:15 Tue 23 Jun 2009
by JacobH
If this is suddenly becoming a serious suggestion, might I be added to the list?
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 04:43 Thu 09 Jul 2009
by marc j.
If there are any openings I'd be interested in attending as well. I do have quite a few older Taylor bottlings that I'd be able to bring to the table as well.
Marc
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 16:42 Thu 10 Dec 2009
by VJR
Good grief 
- I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sheer depth of this lineup. OK, it's still on the drawing board, but
if this tasting materialises, I'd absolutely love to attend it... has the character of a "once-in-a-ifetime" tasting.
No great revelation, as one of the most consistent houses, I belong to the Taylor fanclub.
Cheers, victor
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 18:53 Thu 10 Dec 2009
by jdaw1
We recently discovered that the autumn 2010 slot was double-booked, not including this.
55@55 was given priority; with the
big rectangular being moved to autumn 2011.
Decisions, decisions. Choose one of: autumn 2012; the Americans visit more often; we do it without most of them.
VJR wrote:Good grief - I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sheer depth of this lineup.
Currently it isn’t a lineup, it’s an objective. This should be better than you, me, and a magnum of T85 but don’t assume the whole thing.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 23:24 Thu 10 Dec 2009
by Alex Bridgeman
Two major tastings a year seems to work well, say Autumn (October, to acommodate our American cousins) and Spring (say March, to accommodate Uncle Tom). I would love to see this as a Spring tasting in 2011 or as the Autumn tasting for 2012.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 14:32 Fri 12 Mar 2010
by Chris Doty
Wait -- sorry to be a little late to the party on this one, but why aren't we doing this in 2010?!
Seems like a wonderful year for such a tasting.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 19:09 Fri 12 Mar 2010
by Glenn E.
Chris,
The
55 @ 55 tasting must take place in 2010 or it would be inappropriately named.
Re: A Taylor vertical, quite large
Posted: 15:40 Tue 16 Mar 2010
by Chris Doty
ahh -- thanks for bringing this to my attention.