ThePortForum.com

The annual Christmas event, this instance on Thursday 15th December 2011, as always in The Bell, Wendens Ambo, Essex CB11 4JY, and as always with the theme The Unknown Shipper and His Peculiar Friends.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 10Y Taylor tawny (warm-up);
• 1860 Cossart Gordon Sercial solera (sticky label #1);
• 1945 Quinta do Noval (sticky label #2);
• 1860 A.L.S. Boal (sticky label #3);
• 1940 Dalva colheita bottled 1978 (sticky label #4);
• 1960 Cockburn (sticky label #5);
• Niepoort Vinha Velha (sticky label #6);
• 1935 Croft (sticky label #7);
• 1924 Offley Boa Vista (sticky label #8);
• 1927 Taylor (sticky label #9);
• 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White (sticky label #12);
• 40Y Quinta do Noval tawny (sticky label #15);
• 1922 Warre (sticky label #19);
• 1922 Martinez (sticky label #20);
• 1955 Quinta do Noval (sticky label #21);
• 1977 Berry Bros & Rudd (Quarles Harris);
• 2003 Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference;
• 1911 Clos de Vougeot;
• 2005 Niepoort Robustus magnum;
• ‘Placemats’, meaning stickers and tasting-note sheets;
• Planning and arrangements.

Bottle number 1 from the tasting at the Bell on 15 December 2011.

10% opaque; honey gold in colour. Huge nose, clover honey and mandarin oranges. Sharp entry, very sour; dry and sharp on the mid-palate with lots of grapefruit. Sour lemon and lime aftertaste and finish of modest length.

Believed to have been bottled in the '50s. 86/100 (but I'm not a madeira fan).

Nose: really astringent. In the mouth, incredibly acidic; concentrated lemon juice with a short after-taste.

It was very interesting to try this bottle; I’ve never had a Madeira so old, but I’m not a big fan of Sercial at the best of times and I’m not sure the middle of a Port tasting was the best of times...

Very old and very dry. I did not like this.