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Benread and I have discussed this a few times but it hasn't got much further than the odd conversation. Therefore I thought I'd take the plunge and ask: would there be an appetite for a Coheita/Tawny tasting in London in late April or May amongst those who might be able to attend?

As most of us in the UK drink very little of the wooden stuff, I suggest we could either do a completely informal "bring a coheita" or "bring a coheita or tawny", or, try to make it semi-organised by doing a Century of Port (i.e. a 10-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 30-year-old and an at-least-40-year-old from the same house), with some assorted extras if the a total number of attendees is not divisible by four. The later would, no doubt need to be arranged on an cost-share basis.

In terms of a venue, what about seeing if we can take up the no-corkage offer at The Dockmaster's House?

While those in the twenty year bracket are quite suppable, I find the concentration of sugars in the older wines to be so intense as to limit my intake.

An evening devoted to nothing other than ancient woodies might be a bit too much..

Tom

I would certainly be keen as suggested by the first line in the first post! Even more so if at the Dockmasters House, meaning curry was involved! Given curry and port are not usually good bed fellows, wood aged ports are probably a good theme for the venue. I would be happy with a very informal "bring a colheita / tawny you want to share" theme without complicating this any more. Tom's comments noted though - are you suggesting we could mix VP and Wood aged? Would that work?

I am just happy for an excuse to drink any good port with like minded people!

My limitations remain Monday and Wednesday until the end of June.

uncle tom wrote:While those in the twenty year bracket are quite suppable, I find the concentration of sugars in the older wines to be so intense as to limit my intake.

An evening devoted to nothing other than ancient woodies might be a bit too much..

Yes, that’s a fair point; but I would imagine that there would be a natural tendency to the younger ones.

benread wrote:I would certainly be keen as suggested by the first line in the first post! Even more so if at the Dockmasters House, meaning curry was involved! Given curry and port are not usually good bed fellows, wood aged ports are probably a good theme for the venue. I would be happy with a very informal "bring a colheita / tawny you want to share" theme without complicating this any more. Tom's comments noted though - are you suggesting we could mix VP and Wood aged? Would that work?

My thinking was that tawny would go better with the sort of food at the Dockmaster’s House than the red stuff, and, even if a tasting would be slightly impaired by the curry, as few UK drinkers are serious about their tawnies and colheitas, an informal tasting would be fun without worrying about wiping out any valuable bottles.

What about a slight variation on the theme?

"Bring a bottle of wood aged port, eat a curry and drink beer"

If we don't have too many bottles (or leave half of each bottle at home?) then we wouldn't have to put up with too much sugar

"Bring a bottle of wood aged port, eat a curry and drink beer"

A 'port and peasant' night perhaps..

Tom

It took me a while, but I’ve finally found the official website, located (unsurprisingly) at: http://www.dockmastershouse.com. The food’s somewhat on the haut side, but there is a fixed menu for £17.95/£20.95 for 2/3 courses.

Disappointingly, considering our conversations on the site, they seem to have decided against having any Port in either the restaurant or bar. Though I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a long list of gins before; including some at £11 a shot

That sounds like a splendid evening indeed.

Don’t forget to PM dockmaster an invitation to this thread.

uncle tom wrote:A 'port and peasant' night perhaps..

Dare one ask how peasant is to be cooked?

jdaw1 wrote:

uncle tom wrote:A 'port and peasant' night perhaps..

Dare one ask how peasant is to be cooked?

Curried, I believe.

JacobH wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

uncle tom wrote:A 'port and peasant' night perhaps..

Dare one ask how peasant is to be cooked?

Curried, I believe.

Given the location, is "port and redundant banker" a reasonable substitute if a suitable peasant cannot be found?

DRT wrote:Given the location, is "port and redundant banker" a reasonable substitute if a suitable peasant cannot be found?

According to the popular press redundant bankers are all fat and no intellectual muscle.

jdaw1 wrote: According to the popular press redundant bankers are all fat and no intellectual muscle.

In which case they probably make for good crackling.

Assuming a date is found that I can attend my bottle of woody will be a Krohn Colheita 1965.

Curried, I believe

.

Ah yes, peasant curry, a welcome change from shepherds pie.

Bankers should be stripped of their assets, skewered and gently roasted over a fire of worthless paper..

..they don't call us human beans for nothing y'know..

Tom

DRT wrote:Assuming a date is found that I can attend my bottle of woody will be a Krohn Colheita 1965.

Ben seems only to be able to Mondays and Wednesdays, and I can't do the final two Wednesdays in April, so would any of these work: Wednesday 15th April; Monday 20th; or Monday 27th?

I can't do the 15th but 20th and 27th are not impossible.

DRT wrote:I can't do the 15th but 20th and 27th are not impossible.

Title updated to reflect provisional state of play.

20th and 27th both possible for me too.

benread wrote:20th and 27th both possible for me too.

Good . I’ll update the first post. I suggest we leave it a few more days before settling on the exact date, in case anyone else who is reading this thread and who hasn’t replied would like to come but can only make one day. I’m also not quite clear if Tom would be interested in attending (if we promised not just to bring 30/40 year-old tawnies...!) and if so whether either or both of those dates would work for him.

Please note that at this point the two dates in question are only "not impossible" for me. This means I don't currently have plans to be anywhere else in the country on those dates and the following dates.

To make them definitely possible I need to find a reason to be in London on one of those days and the day after. At this point in time there seems to be limited interest and, to be honest, not enough interest to persuade me to move heaven and earth to spend two days in London with a treck out to Canary Wharf to drink some tawny and eat a curry

I'll keep an eye on the thread as I am interested in doing this but, for me, it might have to wait until a date when I need to be down there and there is interest from others on the same night.

Derek

DRT wrote:Please note that at this point the two dates in question are only "not impossible" for me. This means I don't currently have plans to be anywhere else in the country on those dates and the following dates.

Apologies; thought you were speaking euphemistically rather than literally! I will make necessary adjustments to the first post.

I’m not expecting there to be huge interest in a tawny event and it’s certainly not worth travelling any distance; it may well be that we will have to postpone until enough are around in one place.

[edit to correct missing ‟not” in the final sentence...]

Is anyone else still available on one of these days? 27th looking better as the wife has her first appointment ahead of plans to get her eyes lasered. The appointment is on 20th April so being out that night may not now be good!

Neither of the dates really work for me, so I will likely have to miss this offline.

I think could still make it, but if it's just Ben and myself, perhaps we should postpone?

Hi there,

apologies for my late reply. I would be interested as well. But I am not in favour of the date either. The main reason is football (want to go to Barcelona - Chelsea in the Nou Camp on the 28th of April). If absolutely necessary I could do the 20th of April. Since I drank my Niepoort 1976 Colheita (~20 years in wood, bt 1997) the only bt I currently have is a 1986 Warre Colheita which is quite nice but the the class of the Niepoort. Hope this would work. If you want to do something on the 27th of April please count me in eventually since the venue is around the corner I live (Docklands).

regards

Wolfgang

Did / will this event take place? If so, is there a Review thread for overall comments and opinions on the wines tasted?

Alex

AHB wrote:Did / will this event take place? If so, is there a Review thread for overall comments and opinions on the wines tasted?

Did? no. Will? Perhaps (although I get the sense that there isn't much appetite for this sort of event?).

I know of at least one other TPF member who is in London on Monday 27th and might be persuaded to attend. Unfortunately, he is out of internet range until late Sunday or Monday as he climbs a mole-hill in Scotland somewhere.

If this tasting does not take place then we on this side of the pond will have been shamefully outnumbered in the number of tastings organised by TPF (UK branch) compared to TPF (US branch).

We must do better in May.

To be out-gunned by the US happens. It just does. But if in Q4 the UK is out-gunned by the French, that would be a disgrace.

To be outgunned by the US is inevitable. To be shamefully outgunned is poor form.

AHB wrote:I know of at least one other TPF member who is in London on Monday 27th and might be persuaded to attend. Unfortunately, he is out of internet range until late Sunday or Monday as he climbs a mole-hill in Scotland somewhere.

Just for the avoidance of doubt!I’m afraid that, for my part, the ‟possible” referred to the Wood-Matured Port at the Dockmaster’s House part of the plan rather than the date; I’ve now got a meeting arranged for Monday evening.

JacobH wrote:

AHB wrote:I know of at least one other TPF member who is in London on Monday 27th and might be persuaded to attend. Unfortunately, he is out of internet range until late Sunday or Monday as he climbs a mole-hill in Scotland somewhere.

Just for the avoidance of doubt!I’m afraid that, for my part, the ‟possible” referred to the Wood-Matured Port at the Dockmaster’s House part of the plan rather than the date; I’ve now got a meeting arranged for Monday evening.

I have returned from my mole-hill conquest and was all geared-up for a woodathon only to find that the organiser has had a better offer and ditched the tasting

Ermm, well, hmmm, maybe I planned to get the 3pm train home tomorrow anyway so not too disappointed