November 6th - London Port Offline - Details of the Day

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:58 pm

Roy,

That is extremely unfair of you to leave a little tantiliser on the Vesuvio subject like that.

But then, I have my own piece of news for you - which probably won't be as spectacular as yours, but I am still pleased with what I was able to achieve.

Until Sunday.

Alex

nicos neocleous · Post by **nicos neocleous** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:10 pm

Guys,
Thanks for the info. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:07 am

Just in case anyone has a problem on Sunday, the telephone number for the Crusting Pipe is 020 7836 1415. Ask either for me (Alex Bridgeman) or for Ian Wright, the manager.

Otherwise, I look forward to meeting you all on Sunday.

Alex

Stuart Chatfield · Post by **Stuart Chatfield** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:31 am

Sorry I couldn't do it this time - just a very bad time of year in my line of work. It looks a great line up and I wish you well. Here I am just 1 mile from the venue in my dull office, looking at the list with much envy.

See you all next time in the spring.

NickA · Post by **NickA** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:31 am

Also looking forward to this; I haven't opened a port for a week so an ideal way to make amends!

And thanks Alex for the sterling effort in putting this together.

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:48 pm

This has all gone very quiet considering it's tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it immensely. I'll try and get there early to have a drink with Alex, it'll be good to meet you. We can then settle down to the most astonishing selection of Ports imaginable. Phew.

See you all tomorrow,

Alex

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:28 pm

Its not really gone quiet, I'm just leaving for two weeks travelling on Monday so am spending my time frantically trying to do everything else that needs to be done. That meant (hopefully) getting everything arranged for Sunday a week ahead of us all meeting.

But I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

Alex

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:48 pm

I've just removed the capsules from the 63 and 70 Sandeman's and the corks look perfect - will be opening around 09:00 tomorrow and then putting my faith in GNER to get us to London before you guys start glugging the others!!

Looking forward to meeting you all and learning a thing or two about how to taste port properly - neither Jo or I have been to a tasting before so can't wait to give it a go.

See you all tomorrow

Derek

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 5:17 pm

My train arrives at 12:55 so should be at the venue bt 13:30. Will call if the trains are acting up. All previous trains are just rubbish.

Justin Willott · Post by **Justin Willott** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:23 am

Graham 1970 has just been decanted and is looking and smelling good! Two more hours till the train .......

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:03 am

Did I just read above that someone was opening their old bottles of Port to decant the night before the event. Yikes... my extended Port decanting theory has finally been taken to the extreme.

I hope my bottle shows better than a '55 Sandeman I opened last night. Fortunately, there was an '89 Yquem to quench the sweet tooths after an offline from the Squire's BB.

Although great, I am very much looking forward to meeting this group of FTLOP enthusiasts and just noticed you guys put us over the 2000 post limit. Thanks and see you soon. Hey, I also got to see my first football game yesterday (non-NFL : ) and Fulham bet Man City 2-1 at a rather fun afternoon game. See you in a couple of hours.

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:21 pm

Fzzzring bzzring glrszzring brzllrznt day

Steven Kooij · Post by **Steven Kooij** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:37 pm

Can't wait for the full report!

Linden W. · Post by **Linden W.** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:58 pm

Well done Alex,

well put together, and clearly a lot of effort and thought went into this.

I enjoyed meeting many port enthusiasts I've not had the pleasure of meeting prior to now, including port legend Roy Hersh himself.

decanting times
I enjoyed this tasting, though I alway find port particularly hard work to taste. The leisurely pace helped a great deal. Port seems to evolve in the glass more than any other wine I know, and the trick seems to be not to rush to judge when the wine is poured. The Graham 1963 provided me with a reminder of this as at first I really didn't like it that much. 70 minutes laters and whoomph! This is a great, classic Graham.

Indeed, I've just noticed, in going back through my notes that the Graham was decanted at 1pm, while the three other 1963s had been decanted at 9am / 915am / 9-30am.

Previously, at an offline a week ago (is it only that long ago Nicos?), we had a magnum of Quinta do Noval 1955. Initially I thought it a bit hot and spirity. 40 minutes in the glass, and whoomph!

Of course this hasn't happened with all ports I've tasted, and some indeed go the other way a little, but I have learnt from these sorts of experiences, never to really judge a VP until its had at least an hour in the glass, regardless of when it was decanted.

Anyway, a great port offline. I'll let others more experienced with these wines than me kick off the TNs thread from this event, and I look forward to commenting later.

Thanks again for the invitation,
Linden

Justin Willott · Post by **Justin Willott** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:28 am

This was the first time I had tasted such old ports and what a fantastic experience. As Linden said the difference time made to many of these ports was huge - those that were hot and spirity on first taste tended to calm down to the creamy smoothness which the others showed. I was amazed how well the 66s showed - they stood out a mile for me.

A huge thanks to Alex for organising a great inaugural event and also to Mario for the 2003's he brought (Sandeman , Portal and Portal +)- I was totally lost for words tasting ports that young! It will be a loooooong time till I open my bottles of Portal based on that experience.

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 2:45 am

What a fantastic day and really great to meet everyone. Well done Alex!!

NickA · Post by **NickA** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:31 am

Will Wine wrote:
It will be a loooooong time till I open my bottles of Portal based on that experience.

A great event to be sure - and excellent to meet so many new faces including of course, Roy. A great job Alex, and thank you Roy for coming by and cranking it up more than a notch!

But those 03s, if it wasn't for them my head would be clearer this morning! I found the Portal +, and the Sandeman just outright fruit monsters that just go down so easlily - I could glug them all night! What a fruit slut I am!

I agree with Linden, they changed so much, including the 63 Sandeman which seemed dusty to start, then a taint of sorts got so strong that I thought it might be corked, but then cleared after about an hour. The VA on the '63 Grahams cleared really well showing a lovely wine, and similar for the '66.

Overall I'm really struggling to a) choose an outright favourites, or even limiting selection. Or b) put points to the wines. Every 10 minutes was a different snap shot of a terrific cross section of ports. I will attempt to do that as I write up the notes though. The Fonseca 63 was quite something, but not giving the most pleasure today, for me. Still too young and closed. Although a bit of heat in the '70s of Grahams and Fonseca (which coming last didn't have as much air time so didn't change significantly for me), they were excellent, and although none of the '66s was perfection, as a group I'd be more that happy if either one of them was served to me, they all had so much to give with perhaps only the Fonseca with a touch more in reserve.

Anyway, I'm happy to hold onto the fuller notes until the official notetaker himself, Nicos, has had his say. Or maybe Roy gets the official crown this time around

Cheers

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:09 am

I am sitting at Heathrow waiting for a gate to be announced for my flight and thought what bettter way to spend some time then to check in here.

It was truly MY pleasure to meet all of you folks. So many fine palates and such diverse opinions, which both made for fun discussions and an absolutely fantastic event.

Kudos to Alex for choosing a wonderful theme, picking a fine venue (except for the acoustics which were bloody awful) and arranging the bottles and menu. I know how much work goes into the organization of an even like this, so please know that your efforts were very much appreciated.

I will get to formal notes at some point, but sure I will get beat to the punch as I have a few hundred in the queue from Gaia/Douro, Madeira and now this trip.

Thanks to all of the participants for making this so much fun. I was pleased that even Nick was able to find a Port he liked at this event. I look forward to working with Mario to put together a spectacular outing for the UK crowd (and of course, others in the Europe as well) as we'd love to show you a very different perspective of the Port experience. Either way, we'll be back in March or April at the latest and will arrange FTLOP PORT TASTING PART DEUX.

Alex K. · Post by **Alex K.** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:18 am

I'm now at work so all my tasting notes are sitting on the table at home. Excellent venue and superb organisation from Alex B - well done and thanks for sourcing the Taylor's 1963 for me.

Great to meet everybody and thanks to Roy for coming over and giving us a great excuse.

I will post my musings after someone has set up a TN thread but my favourite was Fonseca 1963. I also wrote down the gist of the conversation between Nicos and Nick. One line each basically summed it up.

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:25 am

I want to add my thanks to everyone for coming yesterday and especially to Mario for bringing the 2003 ports. I have never drunk such young port in my life and I am now converted.

My wine of the day was the Sandeman 2003 - such a massive fruit wallop that I could just drink it all day. So much fruit that it needed to stand in the glass for nearly two hours before I could start to pick up the tannins in the wine (yes - I did sneak back after everyone else had left for one last taste).

As soon as the 2003's arrive in the UK I am off to the shops to buy my next few weeks drinking. My two en primeur cases can sit in bonded storage for 20 years while I do my best to drive up their value by drinking all the young port I can get my hands on.

It was a great pleasure to meet a number of the UK based forum members and to share some great wines. My estimate of finishing at 5pm was only off by about 4 hours.

And we may even have a solution to the acoustics problem if we were to meet at the Crusting Pipe again...

Alex