Help for 2 Brits on Tour! NW America/Canada

[Eric Menchen]

Now I just have to figure out where to get enough glasses!

I found a party rental place within 10 minutes of my house that rents glasses, $0.50 each. That's what I've been doing when I need extras.

[Glenn E.]

Looks like rentals in Seattle are quite a bit more expensive than that, so we're going to do this the easy way.

Everyone (except Dom & friend, of course) bring your own glassware!

You will probably need at most 12 glasses per person. If you don't have that many Port glasses, white wine glasses will work.

Note that you'll need at most 12 glasses. We'll be doing this in flights just to help keep things manageable anyway, so if you only have 4 glasses you can simply re-use them each flight. Between us, Roy and I will have sufficient glassware for Dom & his friend.

I'll have spit cups available and Roy's going to bring a couple of dump buckets. I'll also have water available and will be encouraging people to drink lots of it. I'll print placemats for the tasting (the software for them was written by JDAW) and they'll have little check boxes you can use to keep track of water consumption. I'll have some bread available to clear the palate and there may be some other very light snacks, but eat ahead of time as there won't be a significant amount of food at the tasting. Plus you'll probably want the buffer in your stomach before we start!

You'll also need to decant your Port ahead of time. If you need advice on that let me know, or post here in the thread. The easiest way to do it (if you don't have a decanter) is to use a water pitcher, rinse the bottle and dry thoroughly, and then pour the Port back into the bottle.

[Roy Hersh]

This is shaping up nicely, thanks Glenn!

[Kris Henderson]

Glenn,

I'm in. Please send me your address.

[dom carter]

Hi Glenn

Obviously my plans at the mo are taken a day at a time, due to the ash cloud thats grounding all UK flights, our flights aren't for another 5 days so hopefully normal service will have resumed by then!

Dom

[Roy Hersh]

I for one would not be thrilled flying with that stuff in the air and the possibility of it rendering an engine or two, useless. In due course, the airlines industry will prevail and jets will be again flying trans-Europe and to the USA. Survival of several airlines is on the line. So count on being here with us to a very hearty welcome by a bunch of Yanks looking forward to hanging out with our UK brethren. Are you getting excited yet? We are!

[Eric Menchen]

1. Safe travels and may all your bottles show well.
2. Bummer on the glasses Glenn. I actually found a place cheaper, $0.40/each, but the drive made it not worth it.
3. Two 747s have flown through ash and had not one or two engines fail, but in both cases, all four! Also in both cases, they were able to restart at least some of the engines after gliding to a lower and clear altitude at which point some of the ash/glass broke away from the engines allowing the restart. Look up British Airways Flight 9, which encountered ash over Indonesia, and the KLM flight that hit it over Alaska. There have been other flights as well, but not 747s that I'm aware of. Now of course they flew through pretty thick stuff. The real question here is how thick and how long do you have to fly through the stuff before an engine fails. Two hours over Europe seems safe. How about four or six? Who wants to be the pilot that finds the limit?

[Glenn E.]

Obviously my plans at the mo are taken a day at a time, due to the ash cloud thats grounding all UK flights, our flights aren't for another 5 days so hopefully normal service will have resumed by then!

The news today looks promising - it sounds like they're slowly and carefully starting to resume service. This is one of those cases where I think they're better off being safe, don't you?

We'll have the Port tasting either way... if your plans end up disrupted by the volcano then we'll toast to your health in your absence!

[Melanie R.]

Any recommendations for decanting time on the 1994 Quinta do Infantado LBV I'm going to bring?

[Glenn E.]

Sorry Melanie, I'm afraid I'm not very good at LBV decant times. My gut feeling is just a couple of hours, but it'd really be better if someone else would chime in with a better recommendation. (hint hint poke poke)

Speaking of what people are bringing... I plan to print placemats for the tasting, so please let me know what you're bringing so that I can get it on the placemats!

I also just ordered a few extra Port glasses so I'll be able to cover Dom and his friend.

[dom carter]

Hi Glenn

It looks like my airline carrier is announcing a return to the normal flight schedule for the weekend flights - Yayy!!!

Thanks for organising this Glenn - all i asked for was a bar recommendation! but i'm not complaining. My friend will more than likely drive us to your house (as we are likely to get a hotel in Central Seattle) and not partake in the actual tasting - but has indicated he love to be present and enjoy the evening.

[Glenn E.]

It looks like my airline carrier is announcing a return to the normal flight schedule for the weekend flights - Yayy!!!

Excellent news! Now we just have to hope that none of the other volcanos erupt!

Thanks for organising this Glenn - all i asked for was a bar recommendation! but i'm not complaining. My friend will more than likely drive us to your house (as we are likely to get a hotel in Central Seattle) and not partake in the actual tasting - but has indicated he love to be present and enjoy the evening.

It's no problem at all, we're happy to have an excuse to throw a Port tasting!

I think there will be plenty of Port, so if your friend would like to participate he's more than welcome. Or he can just enjoy the conversation!

[Al B.]

Apart from the problems of the time difference between Seattle and the UK, are we allowed to join by Skype? I had a very amusing offline with Julian and Derek where I was in the comfort of my favourite armchair in the UK and they were cramped into a small room in Julian's house where they wouldn't wake the children - all linked with Skype and a webcam.

The wonders of modern technology.

[Glenn E.]

Unfortunately I'm not a Skype user and don't really know anything about it.

If someone else is, though, and wants to bring a laptop I do have wifi in the house!

[Glenn E.]

Looks like I haven't posted it here yet, so the official start time is 6:30 pm. I'll be prepared for people to start arriving any time after 6:00 pm, though, so show up any time after that.

The lineup looks pretty tasty!

[Al B.]

The lineup looks pretty tasty!

Have you posted the line up anywhere?

[dom carter]

Hey, we've made it. Vancouver is nice and wet (but still stunningly beautiful)- just like home!! Looking forward to seeing you all on Friday night around 18.00 hrs

Dom

[Glenn E.]

The lineup looks pretty tasty!

Have you posted the line up anywhere?

Not yet, no. Some things aren't completely settled yet, so I haven't even started on the placemats.

I probably won't have that ready-to-go until Thursday night, but I'll make sure to post it then.

[Glenn E.]

Hey, we've made it. Vancouver is nice and wet (but still stunningly beautiful)- just like home!! Looking forward to seeing you all on Friday night around 18.00 hrs

Excellent! Glad to hear you made it through the volcano fumes and out safely on our side.

[Glenn E.]

Here's the lineup so far... a couple of things still aren't settled, but this much is solid:

1996 Quinta do Crasto LBV
1994 Quinta do Infantado LBV
1991 Quinta do Panascal SQVP
1985 Graham VP
1980 Graham VP
1970 Taylor VP

We're also going to have a couple of tawnies, but have to wait until Markus is able to find out exactly what's available before we'll know for sure. I'm going to pair a tawny with whatever he can find, so we'll probably either have a couple of 40-year olds or a couple of '60s/'70s Colheitas.

There are still two more possibles who might be joining us, so that'd add a couple more bottles as well!