1966 Taylor-Fladgate: how do I open and decant?

[Peter W. Meek]

I'm expecting to drink this (at least begin drinking this) Sunday night at about 9:00PM at a location about 10 miles away. It has been shipped a week ago (Mon-Tues); laying down label-up until Thursday in a cool cellar; and upright in same cellar since then. I plan to drive it to the drinking location tonight (Sat) and leave it there upright.

At the location, I have a decanter (wide, ship-style with cork), decanting funnels (multi-side-stream type with screen, or regular), worm-style corkscrew and two-prong cork-extractor, coffee filters.

I propose to open at noon Sunday or shortly after, using the two-prong extractor; decant into ship decanter using the open funnel and a coffee filter; I don't plan to try to prevent sediment from leaving the bottle, but depend on the coffee filter to catch it; I will take a small sample at that time; then, cork the decanter until 9:00 drinking time.

I have read several recommendations here, and this seems like the closest I can come to the general recommendations. If I don't hear differently, that's what I'll do.

Some pictures below, although they don't appear in "preview". If not they are in PORTraits






(Drinking VP in the past, I have simply opened the bottle, poured carefully, and filtered bits of cork out with my teeth or lifted them out of the glass with a knife-tip. That works, too.)

[Roy Hersh]

3-4 hours in an open decanter should work best for the 1966.


Here is some excellent info on decanting your Port: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/content/view/136/246/

[Eric Menchen]

These images ?-)

[Peter W. Meek]

These images ?-)

Yep. What did I do wrong?

I put the PORTrait URL in between the IMG tags. Not correct?

[Eric Menchen]

It looks like you put the URL in for the PORTraits page, not the actual image itself.
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/portrai ... ?pos=-1130
vs.
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/portrai ... _1081p.jpg

But enough about that. I hope you enjoy the Port!

[Peter W. Meek]

3-4 hours in an open decanter should work best for the 1966.

Well, the way things look like working out, it will be 4-5 hours. I have to come back and get ready for dinner and eat dinner in between.

I plan to have a sip right after decanting, just for comparison. I wish I was a better taster -- more able to articulate the sensations. It would be easier to make meaningful comparisons.

[Roy Hersh]

Peter,

The more practice you get the more comfortable you will become. I have seen the same thing happen with many here over the past four years. Some of the most rank beginners have developed into very fine tasters of Port and able to articulate their sensorial impressions. Take risks and do your best to simply put forth your perceptions of the characteristics of each bottle you try. Also read lots of other people's tasting notes. and In no time you will feel far more proficient in doing so.

[Peter W. Meek]

The cork was very loose after removing the wax cap under the capsule. The wax appeared to have sealed to the neck completely. Not much air ever got to this port, I don't think.

The wine was still a quarter inch into the neck, so I don't think there can have been too much seepage. There was almost an inch of coarse sediment, some of which was cemented into a chunk. I suspect that this bottle had spent some considerable time upright; otherwise the chunk would have been long and flattened from the side of the bottle.

The Ah-So opener wanted to push the cork down into the bottle even though I was rocking it in as directed. I finally gave up on getting it any deeper and began gently twisting to withdraw the cork. I got about one half out and had to push the rest in.

I decanted into a smallish ship decanter at about 4:30. We used a coffee filter formed into the neck of the decanter (by this time a small crowd had gathered)* and began to pour. There was enough fine sediment that by the time we had about two-thirds of the wine through the filter it was passing only about two drops per second. We held up, replaced the filter, and poured the rest except for what was trapped in the coarse sediment.

Decanting a 1966 Taylor-Fladgate

decanting port 2.jpg (37.73 KiB) Viewed 1159 times

I took a sip then and left the remainder to relax. From here I'll take the account to Tasting Notes.

---
* New version of the old joke: A man is lost in the woods and finally remembers the "in case of getting lost kit" that he had purchased before setting out. He opens it and finds a bottle of ancient vintage port and a decanter. The instructions say: Begin to decant the port and in ten minutes you will have a crowd gathered giving you advice. You can ask one of them how to get out of the woods

[Roy Hersh]

There is an old restaurant (bartender/server) trick that I used to teach people when I was ITB and instructing servers in wine service. If you break the cork or it feels like it is going to push in. Take a "waiter's friend" type of cork screw, or just the screw part of a ScrewPull and insert it ever so gently on a severe 45 degree angle into the cork. Then just gently and slowly pull it out. It works in the vast majority of broken cork circumstances. Where even this will fail is if the cork is crumbly and will disintegrate regardless of the extraction method.

[Peter W. Meek]

If you break the cork or it feels like it is going to push in. Take a "waiter's friend" type of cork screw, or just the screw part of a ScrewPull and insert it ever so gently on a severe 45 degree angle into the cork. Then just gently and slowly pull it out.

I'll try it myself, and pass it along.

One of the most frequent causes of broken corks I see in restaurants is failure to bury the worm. Most lever-type corkscrews are designed so that driving the worm completely (but not any of the shank) will leave the shoulder just able to hook over the neck of the bottle. If the cork is short, it may drop a few crumbs of cork into the wine, but that is better than having to push the last half inch of cork into the bottle.

[Roy Hersh]

Yes, especially if an old ancient cork that is really stinky, but of course ... this is the same piece that was typically in contact with the wine while the bottle rested on its side in the cellar.