For The Love Of Port

We had a great evening and the results were both expected yet still surprising. We ended up with 8 tasters and 12 bottles (add Infantado to the list above). Our overall winner was clear, but not by a huge margin. 1-5 were mostly "the usual suspects" but not in the order that you'd usually see them, and there was a surprise visitor on the podium.

I'll write up the results and send them to John for his article.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great evening, and especially to Carl and Phyllis for driving up from Sacramento again! It was also great to meet Maurice and welcome him to his first FTLOP tasting!

Can't wait to see your results but also to hear Carl & Phyllis' thoughts and scores from attending two tastings (and did they bring a corkscrew to both? )

John M. wrote:Can't wait to see your results but also to hear Carl & Phyllis' thoughts and scores from attending two tastings (and did they bring a corkscrew to both? )

And glasses and decanters

John M. wrote:Can't wait to see your results but also to hear Carl & Phyllis' thoughts and scores from attending two tastings (and did they bring a corkscrew to both? )

Well, I'm really glad that we ended up doing both. I think that both of us found that our sense of smell was far more functional in Sammamish than it was in L.A. - due to the higher humidity, lower temperature, and not driving all the way with the AC on drying out our sinuses. The difference in perception of the nose & flavors was remarkable to me. The wine that was my favorite in LA was not included in the WA lineup, but I'm not sure that means much - I suspect that if we repeat the LA lineup at home with clearer heads we'll both come out with different favorites - probably more like the results from WA.

...and while Andy is correct about our having glasses and decanters at both events, we did in fact forget to bring a corkscrew to either - i need to add that to our traveling wine-tasting kit!

Glenn E. wrote:Notables missing are Dow, Warre, and Warre's Otima

Do Warre still produce a 20yr other than Otima?

Rob C. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:Notables missing are Dow, Warre, and Warre's Otima

Do Warre still produce a 20yr other than Otima?

They did for a while, but it's entirely possible that that's changed.

Glenn E. wrote:

Rob C. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:Notables missing are Dow, Warre, and Warre's Otima

Do Warre still produce a 20yr other than Otima?

They did for a while, but it's entirely possible that that's changed.

In looking for tawnies for this tasting, I found that both are available - don't know if the non-Otima are older bottles though.

where are the results from this tasting? Were they ever posted, I can't locate it.

I think John M. wrote an article for one of the newsletters, but I don't remember which one.

As with the Ruby Reserve Taste-Off, the results were a bit surprising.

For what it's worth, as I recall the Ramos Pinto won our tasting in Sammamish. (Tasting was done blind.) Ferreira, which is normally in the top 3 of people's lists, came in a rather shocking 5th. That's all I can really recall off the top of my head, but I can probably find the full results once I get home.

If you could share that would be great.

In my own blind tasting a couple of weeks back I could only spot Ferreira's crazy finish later on.

When it hit, it hit strong, but until then i was feeling v underwhelmed and had I not had the patience I would have rated it fairly low...

All this to say that I am not overly surprised that it didnt fare particularly well in such a large tasting!