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On Wednesday 2nd May 2012 Johnny Symington joined some regulars at The Bung Hole” , partly to show off the Graham 1952 Single Harvest Tawny. All this after a day spent at The Big Fortified Tasting.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1965 Noval Crusted (AHB);
• 1966 Sandeman (DRT);
• 1966 Warre (RLC);
• 1963 Warre (PW);
• 1934 Dalva colheita (WS);
• 1960 Dow (BMHR);
• 1977 Niepoort (CMAG);
• 1975 Noval (JDAW);
• 1963 Sandeman (RAYC);
• 1960 Dow (THRA);
• 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny (Johnny Symington);
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

”  We are boycotting the corporately anodyne new name. Really, what snorey-dull person did that?

Pre-pouring

To save table space the 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny was moved from its own sheet to top-centre, straddling the two pieces of paper.

To save table space the 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny was moved from its own sheet to top-centre, straddling the two pieces of paper.

To save table space the 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny was moved from its own sheet to top-centre, straddling the two pieces of paper.

To save table space the 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny was moved from its own sheet to top-centre, straddling the two pieces of paper.

To save table space the 1952 Graham Single Harvest Tawny was moved from its own sheet to top-centre, straddling the two pieces of paper.

We were less than heroically expert. Also. we tasted THRA’s very late, and he gave us the clue that ‟co-incidentally, we have already had this wine this evening”.

It was agreed that the WOTN vote would exclude the two colheitas.

A splendid evening with good company and a fine selection of ports. It was a pleasure to meet Johnny and to taste the Grahams 52 Single Harvest Tawny (i.e. Colheita) which he kindly brought to share, and we had a very good selection of other ports.

Both of the colheitas were fantastic; the Grahams 52 was a golden brown with thick smooth texture, classic flavours and a fabulously long aftertaste; By contrast the Dalva 34 (very generously supplied by Wolfgang, who was unfortunately unable to stay for the evening) was very dark brown in colour and had an incredibly intense flavour; a privilege to taste both.

The VPs were no slouches either; highlights for me included the two Warres (63,66), the Niepoort 77 (our youngest wine of the evening, tasted superbly, and with more weight than the last bottle of Ni77 I have tasted), and an intruiging Noval 65 Crusted (1/3 62 Nacional, 2/3 63 Noval) from Alex. There were no lowlights at all. A very nice set of ports, great company and a good evening all round; thanks to all for their contributions.

The Malvedos blog, in a thread entitled [url=http://malvedos.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/a-good-week-for-a-good-year/]A Good Week for a Good Year[/url], wrote:
Johnny Symington and Richard Mayson (centre) looking forward to the hard work of tasting Vintage Ports blind with members of The Port Forum

As not all of us would have wanted to be named on the web, Cynthia, very reasonably, labelled us as a group.

This was a splendid evening indeed with a very good line-up of ports.

A big thanks to Johnny for initiating the idea for this tasting and for allowing us an early opportunity to taste the fabulous 1952. This is certainly a wine that is worthy of commemorating the Diamond Jubilee and I hope all those who buy it are brave enough to drink it rather than stowing it away to gather dust, never to give the pleasure it is meant to.

Thanks also to Team TPF for another fantastic lineup of mature ports. It wasn't easy to pick a top three out of this lot and the scoring probably doesn't do justice to the quality of what we tasted.

My tasting notes are never of the finest quality. But, now typing what I noted, it is clear that a day at the Big Fortified Tasting might not have been the optimal preparation.

jdaw1 wrote: ”  We are boycotting the corporately anodyne new name. Really, what snorey-dull person did that?

talk about americanized..

XXXX bar and grill? lame.

Oh dear; what have they done to the Bunghole?

Is downstairs still "The Bunghole Cellars"? Or are we now frequenting "Downstairs at Davy's Bar & Grill"?