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RAYC, JDAW and I got together last night to continue my training for the Warre / Fonseca double vertical. Despite the fact that there were only three of us, we manfully struggled our way through a generous helping of port with a superb F85 (decanted for 20 hours and showing perfectly as a result of the long decant), an outstanding GC77 that had no sign of TCA, a soft and enjoyable SW77 and a badly oxidised G60.

The F85 was unanimously voted as the wine of the night. The GC77 just edged the SW77 for second place. It was one of those evenings when you realise just how lucky we are to be able to buy such good wine for comparatively modest prices, and to share it with others who will enjoy it as much as we all do.

Thanks to both for joining me last night. Next offline is on Tuesday 18th September at the Bunghole, 6:30pm. All are welcome.

The moral of the evening was: always decant your F85 a long way before you need it.

Three great wines.

I intended to have a glass of each, before returning to work at 9.00....the port was so good i eventually stumbled out at closer to 11.00....

It was nice to finally try a good GC77. I have never previously found this port to live up to its reputation, but last night it was genuinely excellent (albeit there was a slight woody characteristic in the nose which i didn't love).

So too with the F85 - the best showing of this i have had in what now must be over 12 bottles from numerous sources, almost all of which fell below expectation. This is reassuring, as i am well stocked on the basis of its reputation, and was beginning to wonder if i had made a mistake.

SW77 magnums are just fantastic.

G60 had suffered badly from cork failure, but i suspect i should have opened it 6 weeks ago when the cork became pushed during transport and the seal audibly broke. I will know for next time...

Three splendid ports. An excellent evening.

Some links:

The Organising thread
Fonseca 1985 tasting note
Gould Campbell 1977 tasting note
Graham 1960 tasting note
Smith Woodhouse 1977 tasting note

The placemats.