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I have a small ethical dilemma in front of me. Next week, a small assortment of UK based port drinkers are coming to my house to share some port. The theme for the ports is that they are all in need of being drunk, for various reasons - low fill, small leaks etc.

All will be served blind, for the fun of it. Last time we did this I failed to identify the two glasses which held the identical wine from the identical magnum.

So my ethical dilemma is this - should I include the leaky bottle of Cruz '89 that I have as one of the bottles of the tasting and see if anyone spots it? I don't currently have a leaky bottle of Cruz '89 but a quick trip to the supermarket and a small piece of work with a screwdriver and I should have fixed that minor setback.

In truth, I am enjoying the anticipation as I try to choose which 7 bottles to open from the 12 or so which qualify - and it will be such a relief to drink something older than the 2007 vintage!

would it be a replacement bottle or would it be an extra addition.

If the latter, I'm sure if I were a guest, I would surely appreciate the gesture =)

Despite both stable and vintage being in the lesser category, my one recollection of the Cruz '89 is that it is actually quite nice, and, given that most leaky bottles are relatively old, should be conspicuous by it's youth.

I have always been quite ruthless about drinking through my weaker bottles, but do have a choice of bottles that I might bring along..

..my dilemma is "shall I bring the bottle that cost me £33.32, the one that cost me £113.70, (which I vaguely had in mind for the Xmas bash, but was drunk at the same event two years ago) - or the one that cost me £40.00, is of the same stable as the £33.32, but is fourteen years older.."

Decisions, decisions...!

Tom

Tom,

You don't need to bring anything to drink. I am providing all of the bottles we will be drinking on Thursday. All I'm asking of the folks attending is that they bring a non-leaky bottle with them to fill the hole that will be left in my collection. While you are very welcome to bring something with you to add to the drinking list, there is no requirement to do so.

I have 8 bottles lined up and looking forward to being opened.

Incidentally, it looks as though the 8 bottles will cover 5 decades (and range in retail price from about £60 up to £1200, but I did not pay anywhere near retail) so the challenge on the evening will not be to identify the wines (that will be near impossible) but will be to assign the wines to the correct decade. Bragging rights for the next 12 months to the person who gets most right.

Alex

PS - if anyone coming next week has any empty wooden cases that they can spare for my gardening other half, they would be most appreciated.

OK, fine, no probs - i have plenty of non-leaky bottles suitable for gap-filling!

Tom