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I am staying in a hotel in London for 4 nights and decided to set myself the ultimate challenge.

Tonight I opened a bottle of Noval 2000 LBV and told myself that I need to make it last 4 nights

Will post notes here over the course of the week.

Derek

Derek, you lucky guy. This is an absolute fabulous wine, with which I impressed a couple of guys in St. Moritz this year. They brought a Vargellas 2001 and a Panascal 2004 and the unfiltered LBV of Noval was definitely the star of the show whilst being the cheapest of the three as well.

Im going for a Quinta de la Rosa LBV 2000 tonight. It's something different, but after all I think I'm a bit jealous.

Axel

P.S.: I don't think it will last four nights and I bet the next bottle when we meet the next time...

Axel,

You are not helping! I need encouragement and support from my fellow portheads to get through this trauma

I hope it is as good as you tell me it is. If so, I have failed before the first sip

Derek

So you’re upset that it might be good. You can at least be pleased that you managed to avoid the trauma of the New York tasting happening the same night. Think how much worse it would be if you were forced to suffer three 1977s and three 1985s.

Thanks, Jdaw.

That's exactly the kind of support I don't need!

Derek

Derek,

don't do it. Maybe you will get gout from it or anything else. Put the bottle aside and read a book or watch TV, I mean: only read a book or watch TV without a glass in your hand. Get a glass of milk instead or Mountain Dew

Think it over: alcohol is never a saver.

Axel

P.S.: That's all the encouragement you will get!!!
P.S.P.S.: At least it was a try.

If you don’t buy, say, a thousand LBVs, and instead buy one bottle of NN31, then:

• it will be so much better for your liver;
• it will be so much better for your taste buds.

So put the Noval LBV aside, have a glass of milk, and be pleased you aren’t in the gym.

Thanks. That's more like it. Putting me off the idea of drinking it all is the only way to go

Here is my first TN @ +4 Hours
Very purple and sticky in the glass. Raw nose - very young. A little heat on the nose as I take the first sip from a huge red wine glass (the only one available in the room). Mouthfeel is mid-weight. Very tannic, which seems to be hiding lots of nice black fruit. The finish mellows into a lovely fruity sweetness that makes the cheeks water and goes on and on for a long time.

At this point this is not far away from a <5 yr old VP. Very impresive but not something I would buy again to drink now. Needs years.

My challenge is looking good

More tomorrow.


Derek

Derek, who are you kidding, it will NEVER last 4 days. I give it 2, maybe 3 tops

BTW, have you ever had a bottle last more than 2 days when trapped in a hotel?

ADV wrote:BTW, have you ever had a bottle last more than 2 days when trapped in a hotel?

I will admit to now having around 60% of the bottle left to last 3 nights. The challenge is now harder than ever.

Derek

Ahh, just drink it...there must me a market nearby with some cheap ruby you can buy. Just leave a small glass in the old bottle, then refill the old bottle with said cheap ruby, and technically you'll still be drinking from the same botte

No no no no no. Don't drink the rest of the bottle. It doesn't matter that you've drunk 40% of the bottle, simply top it up with tap water and then you will have a full bottle left to last you the next three days.

There, does that help.

Alex

I have come up with an ingenius plan that is much better than the suggestions from ADV and AHB.

Tonight I am going to go out to the pub with a colleague and drink some beer. I will not return to the hotel until I am at a stage where one glass of port before bed is all that I will require. This will restore the plan by leaving me with 50% of the port left with 2 nights remaining.

It's a brilliant plan and I know I can do it.

Derek

Derek,

I can only apologise. It is entirely my fault: there you were, trapped in your shyness, too timid to ask, so you hinted, you hinted ever so gently what you wanted, and I was too insensitive to notice.

I am sorry, but it is done at last: for your Noval 200 LBV tasting, confusion-preventing placemats.

Apologies again for not earlier heeding your hint.

Julian.

Ok, so what are you drinking BETWEEN the sips of Noval '00 LBV?

Tom

jdaw1 wrote:confusion-preventing placemats.

Julian,

This is fabulous. Thank you. It will now be impossible for me to mistake my glass of Noval 2000 LBV for my glass of mineral water.

I now feel more confident about succeeding in my challenge.

Derek

uncle tom wrote:Ok, so what are you drinking BETWEEN the sips of Noval '00 LBV?

Tom

Hmmm - I wondered when someone would ask that

Last night I had 3 pints of Bitburger Pils, 1 glass of red wine and 1 bottle of Budvar around and inbetween my N00LBV.

Tonight was half a bottle of Chianti, 1 pint of Kronenbourg 1667, 1 pint of Bitburger.....and no N00LBV as of this point in the evening.

Derek

Derek T. wrote:mineral water

If you tell which type of “mineral water† (what is the point?) I’ll update the mats to reflect this.

jdaw1 wrote:If you tell which type of “mineral water† (what is the point?) I’ll update the mats to reflect this.

water of the Liffey Derek's favorite

jdaw1 wrote:

Derek T. wrote:mineral water

If you tell which type of “mineral water† (what is the point?) I’ll update the mats to reflect this.

The point is simple - someone places a bottle of this in my room every morning and does not add anything to the bill. A secondary point is that it comes in a 750ml glass bottle which, as I have proven a number of times, is an adequate decanting vessel

The name of this over-hyped tap water is llanllyr SOURCE - please note carefull use of upper and lower case letters. It is from Wales. Which once again prompts the question (what is the point?).

An updated tasting mat would be most welcome and, if forthcoming, I will endeavour to access a printer tomorrow and post a photo of it in use.

Derek

You will note that I have moved this thread to Meaningless Drivel. I will leave the entire thread here and then create a proper TN in the appropriate area once this bottle is finished.

Here is tonights contribution...

+24 Hours
Still raw on the nose and still has some heat. Now has a softer and thicker mouthfeel but still very young tasting. A very nice fruity aftertaste which goes on for a long time. This seems to be a wine to try again in 5 years time.

Derek

Updated: confusion is now impossible.

jdaw1 wrote:Updated: confusion is now impossible.

Something seems to have happened to the O in SOURCE that could lead to confusion.

Please fix.

Derek

PS: If absolute accuracy is desired you should note that the O in SOURCE is infilled in orange whilst the outline of the letter O itself remains white on a black background in common wth the remaining letters.

It’s a monochrome black-on-white text-only approximation to the label. If it is so different that confusion is likely, then you’re back in the kitchen.

jdaw1 wrote:It’s a monochrome black-on-white text-only approximation to the label. If it is so different that confusion is likely, then you’re back in the kitchen.

Would that be snoring, horizontal and asleep? (While a once in a lifetime Fonseca Vertical is still going on next door!)

Conky wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:It’s a monochrome black-on-white text-only approximation to the label. If it is so different that confusion is likely, then you’re back in the kitchen

Would that be snoring, horizontal and asleep?

Of course.

I'd like to suggest that to help Derek's willpower that the rather splendid Tasting Mats be amended slightly so that there is a separate mat for each day. That way Derek can pour all four glasses on Monday and know which one can be drunk on each night. Clearly, once the confusion has been removed Derek will be able to simply drink Monday's glass and look at Tuesday - Thursday's glasses and know that these are for the following days. Hopefully he will then not accidentally drink more port that is allocated to the day as the glasses will have been pre-filled.

So long as Derek brings 4 port glasses with him from Chesterfield then this plan should work.

Alex

A splendid suggestion, foiled only by our slowness in doing it: we’re already on the last day I think.

Isn’t Derek lucky to have such helpful chums! And look at the two bullets •• Alex is bravely taking tonight, sparing Derek the injury. Fantastic chums we are.

Derek,

we are going to have 5 bottles of port tonight, plus some dry wines....just wanted to rub that in...now don't drink all you're port. We shall do that for you, after all, what are friends for

jdaw1 wrote:A splendid suggestion, foiled only by our slowness in doing it: we’re already on the last day I think.

Isn’t Derek lucky to have such helpful chums! And look at the two bullets •• Alex is bravely taking tonight, sparing Derek the injury. Fantastic chums we are.

I see that the new tasting mats include the water glass tally count. Excellent - I need to make sure that I drink enough water tonight.

Indeed, new technology — feedback required.

jdaw1 wrote:Indeed, new technology — feedback required.

Excellent. But where are you supposed to place your glass of water?

Unfortunately, I did not manage to access a printer today so do not yet have a tasting mat to assist me. In order to reduce confusion I have decided to drink the water from the bottle and the port from a wine glass. That should help.

I am still getting a raw smell from this wine, even after 2 days from decanting. There is no significant difference from yesterday - perhaps slightly softer in the mouth but apart from that I detect no difference.

Derek

There should be a link to the second attempt at this tasting note.

None of you believed I could do it but I am proud to say that I have in fact made this bottle last 5 nights rather than the target of 4

I didn't have any last night due to having slightly too much Malvedos 95 with my cheese in the hotel restaurant

Tonight this LBV has softened considerably and is drinking very nicely. I still don't think I would choose to open another for a few years as it obviously needs time to grow up and show what it's made of.

Derek

Why are you still in the Hotel on a Friday? Not back home with your feet up?

I'm now in Edinburgh and will be returning home tomorrow night to put my feet up for 36 hours before heading back to The Smoke

Derek

If you give me advance warning of what you’ll be drinking next week, helpful paraphernalia can be prepared.

Thanks.

My victim has not yet been selected but I will let you know once I decide.

Derek

Derek, I am shocked and dismayed. I thought I taught you better. Don't let me ever hear you make a bottle of Port suffer for 5 days. That is so cruel, you should be arrested on the spot for Port cruelty