ThePortForum.com

Post Plus wrote:This parcel has been damaged. It is in the Northern Ireland depot. Please contact them on 04894488181 to advise. There is one bottle of port broken.

djewesbury wrote:I spent a day and a half trying to find a courier who was able to move a bottle of wine 100 miles within the island of Ireland. I now know that there is none.

Glenn E. wrote:In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long ways. Our concepts of time and distance are strikingly different.

PhilW wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long ways. Our concepts of time and distance are strikingly different.

I agree that there is probably a cultural difference in this regard. I put this down to the facts that Americans typically pay 2 cents per gallon for petrol while we pay about 5 cents plus 50 dollars in tax per gallon; and that Americans exaggerate a billion times more than Europeans

Glenn E. wrote:But for the record, you are now forbidden from ever shipping G77 anywhere again. Banned for life. Sorry, but it's just too nice of a Port for you to keep paying to have bottles broken for you.

PhilW wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long ways. Our concepts of time and distance are strikingly different.

I agree that there is probably a cultural difference in this regard. I put this down to the facts that Americans typically pay 2 cents per gallon for petrol while we pay about 5 cents plus 50 dollars in tax per gallon; and that Americans exaggerate a billion times more than Europeans

Glenn E. wrote:And is that a British billion (one million millions) or an everywhere else in the world billion (1000 millions)?

Glenn E. wrote:
And is that a British billion (one million millions) or an everywhere else in the world billion (1000 millions)?

J. D. A. Wiseman, in [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471487007/jdaw]Pricing Money (2001)[/url], wrote:The word billion used to be ambiguous. In American English a billion is a thousand million, but it meant a million million in old British English, and still does in some other languages. In English the Americans have won: a billion is always a thousand million, and a trillion is always a million million. Because the words ‘million’ and ‘billion’ sound so similar, in spoken English the word ‘yard’ (a contraction of ‘milliard’) is often used as a synonym for a thousand million.

jdaw1 wrote:

J. D. A. Wiseman, in [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471487007/jdaw]Pricing Money (2001)[/url], wrote: the word ‘yard’ (a contraction of ‘milliard’) is often used as a synonym for a thousand million

djewesbury wrote:I am cursed. After this now this, my lovely magnum of G77 bought at auction (the night of our tasting in May):

Post Plus wrote:This parcel has been damaged. It is in the Northern Ireland depot. Please contact them on 04894488181 to advise. There is one bottle of port broken.

I spent a day and a half trying to find a courier who was able to move a bottle of wine 100 miles within the island of Ireland. I now know that there is none.

djewesbury wrote:I know, it's kind of depressing. Now I want to organise a G77 tasting. From halves, bottles, magnums, jeros, methuselahs and nebs.

TLW wrote: Anyone have any double magnums or imperials?

TLW wrote:I have bottles and magnums of the 77 Graham, and am very curious as to the effect of differing bottle sizes on port in the very long term;

In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long ways.

I think that 80-yr old houses are pretty cool because they are so old.

uncle tom wrote:'The Cockburn '69 my lord - there is no finer wine'

Croft ’69 was not all what it seemed?

Glenn E. wrote:

djewesbury wrote:I spent a day and a half trying to find a courier who was able to move a bottle of wine 100 miles within the island of Ireland. I now know that there is none.

Very sad to see such a lovely bottle ruined.

But this quote makes me think of a very true saying:

In America, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long ways. Our concepts of time and distance are strikingly different.

I'd have probably driven 100 miles to pick up a magnum of G77.

uncle tom wrote:If you send something by post or courier, expect that it will fall off the back of a truck, literally - that's a drop of about 4'6" - 1.35m - typically.

jdaw1 wrote:

uncle tom wrote:'The Cockburn '69 my lord - there is no finer wine'

Could this be a Croft-Cockburn ’68-’69 switch, the author being aware, even if only vaguely, that the Croft ’69 was not all what it seemed? It might be a literary device, echoing a poisoned wine, without involving libel lawyers.

uncle tom wrote:I've never heard of a Croft 1869 - in fact, the oldest on my database just happens to be 1870.

André L Simon, in [url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=18141#p18141]Vintagewise[/url], wrote:The case is different with another notoriously bad vintage, that of ’69, which was shipped by one solitary shipper, Messrs. Croft, and a beautiful wine it was, but it was not a ’69 and everybody knew it.

What happened was this: the summer of 1868 was exceptionally hot and the grapes were shrivelled by the heat; there was no question about this; the head of the House of Croft had seen them with his own eyes, when visiting the firm’s vineyards in the Alto Douro; and so he declared to all who met him on his return to Oporto that there would be no Vintage and hardly any wine at all. But it so happened that the moment he had turned his horse’s head towards Oporto, a fine rain had descended upon the shrivelled grapes which were bursting forth sugar and only wanted this gift from heaven to swell out and bring forth a wonderful wine, one of the finest vintages ever made in the Douro. But Croft would not go back upon their word: they had declared that there was not going to be a ’68 vintage and there was no Croft ’68 but everybody knew that Croft ’69 was ’68.

uncle tom wrote:Lovely story - I wonder if any bottles survive?

DRT wrote:I'm not opening my last case until 2069

djewesbury wrote:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk 21370612533.986663.jpg

Apparently the courier declined extra packaging when offered...

jdaw1 wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

uncle tom wrote:'The Cockburn '69 my lord - there is no finer wine'

Could this be a Croft-Cockburn ’68-’69 switch, the author being aware, even if only vaguely, that the Croft ’69 was not all what it seemed? It might be a literary device, echoing a poisoned wine, without involving libel lawyers.

uncle tom wrote:I've never heard of a Croft 1869 - in fact, the oldest on my database just happens to be 1870.

André L Simon, in [url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=18141#p18141]Vintagewise[/url], wrote:The case is different with another notoriously bad vintage, that of ’69, which was shipped by one solitary shipper, Messrs. Croft, and a beautiful wine it was, but it was not a ’69 and everybody knew it.

What happened was this: the summer of 1868 was exceptionally hot and the grapes were shrivelled by the heat; there was no question about this; the head of the House of Croft had seen them with his own eyes, when visiting the firm’s vineyards in the Alto Douro; and so he declared to all who met him on his return to Oporto that there would be no Vintage and hardly any wine at all. But it so happened that the moment he had turned his horse’s head towards Oporto, a fine rain had descended upon the shrivelled grapes which were bursting forth sugar and only wanted this gift from heaven to swell out and bring forth a wonderful wine, one of the finest vintages ever made in the Douro. But Croft would not go back upon their word: they had declared that there was not going to be a ’68 vintage and there was no Croft ’68 but everybody knew that Croft ’69 was ’68.