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Eleven regulars gathered in a crowded Bung Hole to give Mr Doty a break from Wimbledon, in the form of a 1966 horizontal. It’s a hard life.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1966 Fonseca;
• 1966 Taylor;
• 1966 Croft;
• 1966 Niepoort;
• 1966 Sandeman;
• 1966 Offley;
• 1966 Dow;
• 1966 Graham;
• 1966 Warre (probably);
• 1966 Gould Campbell;
• 1966 Warre;
• 1966 Quinta do Noval;
• Placemats;
• Planning and arrangements;
• 1966 Château Cantenac Brown;
• 1966 Château Langoa Barton.

D66. Brick red, 30% opaque. Big and chewy to taste, with caramel and raisins. Delicious. Very big and long. Lovely mature port.

A similar light brown to many of the ports on this night, with a broad clear rim. The nose was strapping, very leathery, full and hearty. On the mouth it opens with jellied fruits, suddenly bursting into liquorice, which dominated in the long, smoky finish. Tasted early in the evening, this was a leader to begin with but was later supplanted. Very smooth and drinkable.

Dow
Flavors and aromas of white choc, wild rasp, nutmeg, almonds. Very complex with fruit forwardness and floral aromas

Mature orange rim, 30% opaque. Spicy, cranberry nose with lots of really interesting mace and honey. Sweet toffee apple on the palate. Powerful acidity sears and burns in the palate; good thick texture, spicy with nice development of a powerful curry leaf. Acidity sears on the aftertaste, before a long burnt coffee finish of good length. Unbalanced, with the acidity too dominant. 88/100.

jdaw1 wrote:D66. Brick red, 30% opaque. Big and chewy to taste, with caramel and raisins. Delicious. Very big and long. Lovely mature port.

AHB wrote:Acidity sears on the aftertaste, before a long burnt coffee finish of good length. Unbalanced, with the acidity too dominant. 88/100.

Oh.

jdaw1 wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:D66. Brick red, 30% opaque. Big and chewy to taste, with caramel and raisins. Delicious. Very big and long. Lovely mature port.

AHB wrote:Acidity sears on the aftertaste, before a long burnt coffee finish of good length. Unbalanced, with the acidity too dominant. 88/100.

Oh.

Don't worry JDAW, what does that AHB fella know about tasting notes anyway?

My concern is that AHB’s D66 and W66 glasses were the wrong way round. That hypothesis isn’t strongly contradicted by the four tasting notes we have for each.

jdaw1 wrote:My concern is that AHB’s D66 and W66 glasses were the wrong way round. That hypothesis isn’t strongly contradicted by the four tasting notes we have for each.

This is indeed quite striking..

It is quite possible that glasses were filled with the wrong port or swapped before my note was taken, but I am pretty sure that it wasn't.

CSD has not posted individual tasting notes but in the third paragraph of his review of the evening as a whole he comments

CSD wrote:My top three (Noval, Croft, Graham) excluded the Dow's, which had been the star of the first hour or so of the tasting, but even just before we broke for dinner I noticed it was starting to shake a bit. Kudos to AHB for noting originally that it was lacking structure this proved too true.

I was sadly unimpressed by the Dow 1966 - I didn't think it showed as well as other bottles have in the past.