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On the 1st of November 2013 a small group of wine lovers who are frequent and infrequent visitors to TPF met for dinner at Otto’s, 182 Grey’s Inn Road, London. This was an opportunity to share some wines that many had not tried before ”“ the occasional gem that finds its way into a wine collection but rarely does the right occasion arise to open such a bottle.

13 different bottles were shared between 11 people, accompanied by a menu specifically chosen to match the wines. A heartfelt thank you has to go out to WS1 for the time he put in to organising the dinner and his fabulous generosity in sharing so many rare wines from his wine collection.

The wines and food were:
Jambon de Ibéria ‘Pata Negra’, Marinade de Figues au Porto accompanied by Blandy’s Bual ‟Napoleon” vintage 1792.

Saumon Fumé Coupé à la Minute, Garniture Traditionnelle accompanied by Pol Roger 1990 from magnum.

Cep Mushroom Risotto accompanied by Chateau de Beaune Montrachet 1986 from Bouchard, Clos de Vougeot 1926 from an unknown producer, 1958 Barolo from Giacomo Conterno and 1959 Beaune Premier Cru from Pierre Leger.

Rare Roasted Saddle of Hare with Spaetzle, Pear and Red Cabbage accompanied by 1924 Chateau Rouget, 1959 Chateau Talbot, Chateauneuf du Pape from Celestins from the 70s, 1925 Castillo Ygay.

Baked cheese accompanied by Warre 1945, Martinez 1922 and an unknown vintage Moscatel (with IVP seal) from Valente, Costa & Ca.

I knew the sell-off of Royal Mail would go wrong. My invitation is obviously still in transit

DRT wrote:I knew the sell-off of Royal Mail would go wrong. My invitation is obviously still in transit

As have the US Postal Service's issues affected delivery of mine as well

Don't worry. I'm sure the invitations will arrive in a few weeks time.

AHB wrote:Don't worry. I'm sure the invitations will arrive in a few weeks time.

It was indeed a fantastic evening! Thank you very much AHB for opening one of the very rare 1792 Madeira bottles that at one stage belonged to Napoleon. Since there were only 200 made it is mega rare and even Sir Winston Churchill when getting to taste one as part of a dinner he insisted pouring the Madeira himself!
Due to a friend sold his two bts of this very rare Madeira in 2008 in order to fund the purchase of a Nacional 1931 I got introduced to AHB, JDAW and Axel P as part of the tasting of Noval and Nacional in pairs from 31, 63, 94, 97, 00 and 03. After having then organised with Axel P a modest horiciontal of 1970 vintage ports (only 35!) I became a member of . All very emotional
We were very lucky and had now duff bt. All old wines showed brilliantly. For me my favourite wine was the averaged Celestins CDP from H Bonneau from the 70s. Very rare and fantastic. I was also very fond of the Moscatel NV.

regards

WS1

Andy Velebil wrote:

DRT wrote:I knew the sell-off of Royal Mail would go wrong. My invitation is obviously still in transit

As have the US Postal Service's issues affected delivery of mine as well

If you like old wines I am sure we can avoid these issues with the Royal Mail and US Postal services going fwd. As said before only ~15% of my wine cellar is port. So you could even argue that I need to work on that

regards

WS1