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What are people planning for Christmas?

I have my eye on an Offley 70 for Xmas eve, and my Xmas day port is likely to be a Graham 83 or Fonseca 85 (for something a bit more robust!).

RAYC wrote:What are people planning for Christmas?

I have my eye on an Offley 70 for Xmas eve, and my Xmas day port is likely to be a Graham 83 or Fonseca 85 (for something a bit more robust!).

I have the Fonseca 85 and Niepoort 85 lined up. I hope to be lucky again with the Niepoort 85.

For "normal" wine we'll have a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Olivier Hillaire 2001.

Taylors '77 for Christmas itself, and possibly a Grahams '94 if I feel like something else in the runup to new year (which I probably will ).

richmills wrote:Taylors '77 for Christmas itself

Very nice - after being lucky enough to drink this a few times at tastings over the last few months, i was sorely tempted to open up my one bottle of it for Christmas...unfortunately my family are very reluctant port drinkers so i just can't quite justify it to myself!

A leaking Vesuvio 1997.

A Taylor '70 (probably) and a 40-yr old (for sure). Possibly also a Churchill '85 or Graham '85 depending on how thirsty people are.

Can't decide which 40-yr old to open... I have Kopke, Noval, and Romaneira all on hand.

I will open 75s this year. Just bought a case of Croft 75, but in larger groups I will open Graham and Dow 75s from a Magnum. Lovely, well matured nice ports.

Axel

I'm thinking about opening a 1963 Niepoort as well as a Churchill 20 Year Old.

RAYC wrote:What are people planning for Christmas?

I have my eye on an Offley 70 for Xmas eve, and my Xmas day port is likely to be a Graham 83 or Fonseca 85 (for something a bit more robust!).

I have a Warre 66 which keeps calling to me from the cellar... it has been ever since I had been intending to bring it along to the "Star Quality" offline but was unable to attend at the last minute; I think that will probably be opened on Xmas Eve or Boxing day.

It's a point of mild frustration for me that because of the amount of driving I do over Christmas, I don't get many opportunities to drink alcohol. As a result, the two week period of Christmas and New Year will probably only see me open one half bottle of port - probably Cavadinha 1987 this year.

AHB wrote:will probably only see me open one half bottle of port - probably Cavadinha 1987 this year.

Have the same on my death row and this Xmas may be a good time for it to meet its demise.

Hi,

at christmas I tend to always open a Grahams 1963 over the last couple of years. I am fairly sure this year will be no different.
My mother and sister loves this port so do I. Wines I am not sure yet; definitely some German Beerenauslese for after the Grahams and otherwise probably a Chave Hermitage Rouge 1994 which is drinking beautifully at the moment. Anyway Rhones 1994 have come round beautifully!


regards

WS1

Tonight for us is the Christmas Port night so up on the table are
55 Dow's
55 Taylor's
63 Dow's
66 Fonseca
70 Grahams
70 Taylors

The 63 Dow and 70 Taylors had just started to leak a tiny bit so it was rude not to add them in

Next week we will go for Cos d´Estournel 1986 and either an 83 Graham's or 77 Fonseca

Might be a fonseca 66 to ring in little g-man as my xmas gift

g-man wrote:Might be a fonseca 66 to ring in little g-man as my xmas gift

We are anxiously awaiting news from you -- keep TPF posted

SushiNorth wrote:

g-man wrote:Might be a fonseca 66 to ring in little g-man as my xmas gift

We are anxiously awaiting news from you -- keep TPF posted

You appear to have missed the good news

clawhit wrote:Tonight for us is the Christmas Port night so up on the table are
55 Dow's
55 Taylor's
63 Dow's
66 Fonseca
70 Grahams
70 Taylors

The 63 Dow and 70 Taylors had just started to leak a tiny bit so it was rude not to add them in

Next week we will go for Cos d´Estournel 1986 and either an 83 Graham's or 77 Fonseca

What a wonderful line up of port. Hope you enjoyed them all.

PhilW wrote:

RAYC wrote:What are people planning for Christmas?

I have a Warre 66 which keeps calling to me from the cellar... it has been ever since I had been intending to bring it along to the "Star Quality" offline but was unable to attend at the last minute; I think that will probably be opened on Xmas Eve or Boxing day.

Sadly the Warre 66 was a buggered bottle - very like the T77 at the October matrix - decanted last night and thought it was dodgy; confirm this morning as suitable for cleaning sinks
Fortunately the Grahams 85 (just decanted as replacement) seems superb

PhilW wrote:

PhilW wrote:

RAYC wrote:What are people planning for Christmas?

I have a Warre 66 which keeps calling to me from the cellar... it has been ever since I had been intending to bring it along to the "Star Quality" offline but was unable to attend at the last minute; I think that will probably be opened on Xmas Eve or Boxing day.

Sadly the Warre 66 was a buggered bottle - very like the T77 at the October matrix - decanted last night and thought it was dodgy; confirm this morning as suitable for cleaning sinks
Fortunately the Grahams 85 (just decanted as replacement) seems superb

oh dear - still, a good replacement you had on hand.

My Christmas port ended up as an Offley 70 as i had a look back through the TNs and decided the G83 might be a good one for a tasting soon. Unfortunately the O70 smelt of dishwater, and was little better in the mouth. A Graham Crusted 2003 was opened and proved to be a very fine reserve. But nothing over Christmas could compete with an extremely impressive 2001 Bdx (pomerol) that my father provided for the lunch.

RAYC wrote:

PhilW wrote: My Christmas port ended up as an Offley 70 as i had a look back through the TNs and decided the G83 might be a good one for a tasting soon. Unfortunately the O70 smelt of dishwater, and was little better in the mouth.

Sounds as unlucky as my W66 - especially as we had the O70 a couple of times recently with it showing very well (which is why it is near the top of my future purchase wish-list). The pomerol sounds very good.

My bad W66 was a retail purchase, so I let the supplier know (just in case many from the case were bad to help with any future buying decisions) and he generously offered to replace it, so hopefully I'll end up with a nice W66 after all.

My T70 was not as bad as any of the above, but underperformed. I normally expect the T70 to be outstanding - which for me means 94-96 points - while this one was "merely" excellent. I gave it a 92, mostly due to heat beyond what I consider acceptable but not yet to the point of being obnoxious.

Strangely, this particular bottle of T70 exhibited very few "Taylor" cues. I did note a peppery taste but attributed that to the alcohol/heat and not to Vargellas. There was also none of the Christmas spice that I normally find in Taylors.

Chanukah port (as served at the dec 25 Chanukah party) was Gould Campbell 1980. I'm starting to think these are too young, and may need to put the 8 remaining bottles further back in the racks to prevent them from being drunk. They are quite good, however.