1985 horizontal, Seattle, Jan 24-25 2015

[Bradley Bogdan]

Wahoo! Doing the happy dance. Looking forward to this epic tasting.

So other than the $185 for the port/room cost is there anything else I should bring? Am I allowed to bring snacks into the tasting room for us to have on a break. I seem to remember that food (other than the baguettes) was banned in the room but thought I would check anyways. Also wondered if the hotel has a group rate for those booking a room for this event.

Looking forward to meeting everyone.
Cheers,
Lisa S.

Depending on your budget, the Econolodge across the street is much cheaper and is adequate, though not fancy. That is, provided they don't bump you like they did me last time haha.


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[Roy Hersh]

Congratulations to Lisa for obtaining a seat at the table. See you in a few days.


Glenn mentioned we might not have enough glassware. That is no longer the case. As a group, we will have plenty.

Looking forward to see everyone soon!

[Glenn E.]

Yes, I have 6 more dozen glasses on the way (3 for Sandy, 3 for me) so we should have plenty of glassware now!

• WEEKEND SCHEDULE
  
  Friday
• No plans, feel free to organize amongst yourselves.
• I'm going out to dinner with Lisa, Vic, Brad, and Brad's wife at the Herbfarm to celebrate Lisa's birthday.
• If you are arriving on Friday and haven't already done so, please make arrangements with Roy to drop off any bottles of Port that you're bringing so that they can be properly decanted.
  
  Saturday
• Remember to eat lunch before you arrive! We have a long afternoon of Port drinking ahead of us.
  11:00 am - the conference room at the Holiday Inn opens
• If you can help pour and set up, please arrive at 11. If you aren't helping with setup, please stay out of the conference room to chat/etc. We have a LOT of pouring and setting up to do, so it would be best if there are not any extra people hanging out in the room while we're trying to get that done.
  11:45 pm - hopefully we'll have setup done by this time and can open the room to everyone
  12:00 pm - official start time
  2:45 pm - end of first flight (8 Ports)
• 30 minute break
  3:15 pm - start of second flight (8 Ports)
  6:00 pm - target end time
  7:00 pm - official end time (technically we only have the room until 7, but I doubt the Holiday Inn will care if we need more time)
• There are no official dinner plans being made, but I'm sure that people will head out in groups. Any of the locals can recommend good options for dinner.
  
  Sunday
• Remember to eat lunch before you arrive! We have a long afternoon of Port drinking ahead of us.
  11:00 am - the conference room at the Holiday Inn opens
• If you can help pour and set up, please arrive at 11. If you aren't helping with setup, please stay out of the conference room to chat/etc. We have a LOT of pouring and setting up to do, so it would be best if there are not any extra people hanging out in the room while we're trying to get that done.
  12:00 pm - official start time
  2:45 pm - end of first flight (8 Ports)
• 30 minute break
  3:15 pm - start of second flight (8 Ports)
  6:00 pm - target end time
  7:00 pm - official end time (technically we only have the room until 7, but I doubt the Holiday Inn will care if we need more time)
• There are no official dinner plans being made, but I'm sure that people will head out in groups. Any of the locals can recommend good options for dinner.

[Andy Velebil]

THanks for all the work on this Glenn. Can't wait to see everyone.

[Bradley Bogdan]

THanks for all the work on this Glenn. Can't wait to see everyone.

Ditto, very excited!


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[Glenn E.]

Complicating matters slightly, all of the USB ports on my home computer have failed. Which means no mouse and no keyboard. D'ohh!

Luckily I have Tapatalk on my phone so I can still access FTLOP that way, and of course my computer at work is fine, but it means my ability to respond to anything outside of work hours will be limited. I believe everything is on track, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of days!

[Eric Menchen]

Complicating matters slightly, all of the USB ports on my home computer have failed. Which means no mouse and no keyboard.

PS/2 !

[Edgar B.]

Wha...! Only 32 ports . I second or third the above comments and really appreciate the tremendous amount of work by Glenn and Roy putting this extraordinary tasting together . Can hardly wait !

[Glenn E.]

Complicating matters slightly, all of the USB ports on my home computer have failed. Which means no mouse and no keyboard.

PS/2 !

Those ports seem to have died along with the entire board that supports the USB. Either that or they never worked... hard to say since I've never used them.

[Eric Menchen]

No USB ports, no PS/2 ports. But as long as we have Vintage Ports, we will be o.k.

[Lindsay E.]

Personally, I'm moved by the generosity of Marc and Sean C. for contributing their bottles despite not being able to attend. Maybe we can orchestrate a conference call during one of the breaks to say "thank you."

[Roy Hersh]

For the first time in several days, I can smell and taste again. Now ... I can start to get excited.

As for the organization ... ALL credit goes to Glenn. At best, I've been in a "supporting actor" role.

[Glenn E.]

Personally, I'm moved by the generosity of Marc and Sean C. for contributing their bottles despite not being able to attend. Maybe we can orchestrate a conference call during one of the breaks to say "thank you."

Don't forget John M., too. He donated the Borges & Irmao to support the horizontal even though it was never a possibility that he might attend.

Sean has been frantically trying to find bottles for us, but I told him to stop. Unfortunately his records were wrong - the case of 1985 Delaforce that he thought he had turns out to actually be 1977 Delaforce, and his last bottle of 1985 Osborne seems to have disappeared. He was about to order bottles online and have them shipped to me overnight in order to make sure we had them, but while I appreciate his generosity and dedication to the cause that's just not necessary. We're still going to have 31 different Ports from 1985!

As for the organization ... ALL credit goes to Glenn. At best, I've been in a "supporting actor" role.

Don't let Roy fool you, he's been more than a supporting actor. Few if any of these tastings we hold here in Seattle would happen without him! Potentially his most important role has yet to start - he and Andy will be doing most of the decanting each night. I dropped 20 bottles of Port off at his house on Tuesday night!

And lastly, Lindsay will be bringing in the baguettes for us each day. Just one less thing I have to worry about during the morning of each day. Thanks Lindsay!

[Edgar B.]

What a great organization to be a part of!!!

[Glenn E.]

Placemats have been printed and are ready to go!

[Roy Hersh]

What, we ONLY have 31 bottles of 1985?

It's not like this is a 1945 VP event. What's going on here. Seriously, 31???

Forget it, I'm not coming.

[Glenn E.]

LOL. Okay I'll contact the next person on the wait list.

[Eric Menchen]

Or, more for the rest of us!

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[Lisa Stevens]

An amazing two days! Thanks Glenn for doing all the legwork to make this happen. And than you to every one who donated bottles! It was a great overview of the vintage. My take away is that you should drink up your non-top tier producers—they are drinking fine now but won't be for much longer. If you have some of the top bottlings from folks like Fonseca, Graham, Dow, etc., they are drinking beautifully now and have a decade or more of aging left, depending on the bottle.

-Lisa

[Glenn E.]

What a weekend! 31 vintage Ports plus a side-by-side of Graham's Six Grapes vs Graham's Six Grapes Special Old Vines Edition!

Thanks everyone for coming to Sammamish and making the tasting worth the effort. It was really great seeing everyone again, especially the people who flew in from out of town. You're the reason that we have these tastings!

Overall the results were about what I expected, though there were several disappointments. The Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse underperformed by quite a bit. The Krohn, Ramos Pinto, and Warre were all pleasant surprises for me. The Fonseca on Day 1 and the Graham on Day 2 were both really good, but not showing their best - as the second bottle of Fonseca on Day 2 demonstrated so clearly.

I don't have a computer at home right now (all of the USB ports have failed, making it impossible to use my USB mouse and USB keyboard) so it will be a while before I can get tasting notes posted, but hopefully others can get theirs up more quickly so that we have a record of this awesome event!

I'll post a short review (from memory) over lunch.