2016 FTLOP Madeira get together - UPDATED 4/1/16

[Roy Hersh]

Right now I am still waiting to hear from a handful of guests to learn what they will ante up and share with our two groups. I must say, I never expected the quality for both days to reach this level, as everyone has really stepped up, big time!

No matter which group you are in or both ... the wines will be exceptional!

For those that are taking their time in choosing, you are driving the cost of your own bottle upward ... quickly. Many of the great offerings from RWC are now taken. So if you still need to purchase a bottle or two in order to attend, please do MAKE SURE to check with me first so you won't arrive with a duplicate.

We will discuss the dinner wines in early March and then arrange for shipments, etc.

[Roy Hersh]

Today's question for the group, like picking off the menu at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Please pick up to any TWO choices. Do you want to:

a. have flights arranged by grape ... dry to sweet?
b. have flights arranged by age ... oldest first?
c. have flights arranged by age ... youngest first?
d. do entire tasting blind and discuss by flight?
e. do entire tasting sighted and discuss by flight?
f. go through the entire tasting and discuss at the end of the tasting?


Thanks!

[Alan Gardner]

I choose a) as my first choice - makes sense to me to arrange in roughly similar styles.
However, I learn more if blind tasting (and means I can't pick my wine as favourite unless it deserves it), so choose d) as my other selection.

But we all want to see the labels/stencils so display the bottles according to vintage, mixing styles.

[Glenn E.]

I am a Madeira n00b, but what Alan says makes sense to me so I'll choose the same options.

[Steve Pollack]

Any opinion from the locals regarding the location and quality of the following hotels? Or other recommendations?

Hotel Vintage
Alexis Hotel
Hotel Monaco

All 3 of these are Kimpton Hotels.

By the way, for those in need of a hotel, you can reserve through Orbitz at 15% off through 2/28 with the promotional code of FUNFUNFUN.

[Roy Hersh]

All three are very solid venues. Location wise, they are all within a fairly small radius. Cab rides will be manageable.

[terrance creighton]

I would choose A as well, that sounds like the best option.
And I would say D.

But really, anything would be immensely enjoyable.

[John Trombley]

Not that I have a say in the matter, but is any of these choices equivalent to 'blind peer group' tasting, in other words, arranging flights of similar wines served in some sort of logical order (like all wines of the flight are xx decade varieties yy, or serving horizontal flights without the tasters knowing the vintage, or other such arrangement), without announcing either what the flight consists in or what the wines are? Of course, if this is already an option decided for or against, you may not want to or be able to reply while keeping the blinding intact. So 'no comment' is an appropriate answer.

[Llyn Strelau]

I vote with Alan, flights by grape (or at least style - dry-sweet). within that not sure oldest to youngest or vice versa

and D - Blind by flight with discussion after each flight - gives us a break to discuss while a flight is still fresh in our minds/palates

[Eric Ifune]

Sercial first, but then could blindly do Verdelho, Terrantez, Bastardo together, and then Bual, Malvasia, and Moscatel blind together.

[Lisa Stevens]

I would vote a and e, but it looks like most folks like to fly blind. :) As a relative noob to madeira, I find it good to know what I am drinking so I can start linking up the tastes in my mouth to my brain, but I have learned with port that I can do that blind as well. So I bow to the collective wisdom of the group!

-Lisa

[Alan Gardner]

I would vote a and e, .... I find it good to know what I am drinking so I can start linking up the tastes in my mouth to my brain

-Lisa

I think that's a good argument for the Saturday tasting to perhaps be non-blind. Or maybe we could reveal the identities of each flight before we move on to the next flight.

But personally I still learn more from blind tastings.

[Glenn E.]

But personally I still learn more from blind tastings.

For Port, yes, because I think I know a lot about Port and can be fooled/pleasantly surprised by a blind tasting.

But I know so little about Madeira that there's very little risk of label bias for me.

[Alan Gardner]

But I know so little about Madeira that there's very little risk of label bias for me.

So you're not likely to 'talk up' the wine you bring?

Maybe I'm projecting here, but I find 'many' people think their own 'baby' is far better than those of others.

[Marc R]

My preference would be A and E. However, I'm sure open for whatever the group prefers.

[Glenn E.]

But I know so little about Madeira that there's very little risk of label bias for me.

So you're not likely to 'talk up' the wine you bring?

Maybe I'm projecting here, but I find 'many' people think their own 'baby' is far better than those of others.

I have noticed a tendency to prefer my own bottle at Port tastings, but in a way that makes sense. I'm not going to bring a bottle that I doubt I'll like (because for starters, I don't own any bottles that I don't think I'll like), so there's a pretty good chance that the bottle I brought fits my preferences. I suspect that's true for most people. We're inclined to bring bottles that we think we'll enjoy sharing.

But like I said, I know so little about Madeira that I won't even know if my own bottle is supposed to be good or not. Well... Roy recommended it, so I assume it is good. But I assume that all of the others are good, too!

My Madeira ratings still consist of +, _, and -. I like it, I have no comment, or I don't like it. Sometimes if I really like something it'll get ++ to distinguish it from the others with +.

[Alan Gardner]

Fair enough comments overall - although you would then pick your own bottle blind, because you prefer it anyway.

[Glenn E.]

Fair enough comments overall - although you would then pick your own bottle blind, because you prefer it anyway.

So... funny story...

At one of our more recent 1980's tastings (as I recall it was "The Best of the 80s"), we were down to the last flight and my bottle - a 1985 Graham - hadn't shown up yet. (The tasting was done blind, revealed after each flight. Only Roy and I knew the entire lineup.) Neither had the 1985 Fonseca. So as we're tasting through the flight, I get to what I'm sure is the 1985 Fonseca. I look up at Roy, and he's looking at me with the same glass in his hand, and we just nod to each other.

I've also found what I'm certain is my bottle, but I'm disappointed because I only have it 3rd in the flight. It's hitting all the right notes, but it's just not singing. So, dejectedly, I rate it 3rd.

But I'm having a really hard time with one other bottle... I mean, this bottle is really singing. I just can't figure out what it is. It's so good that I'm toying with rating it above the Fonseca. Roy's just trying to get me to commit, and rolls his eyes when I finally do rate it a point higher than the Fonseca. I just have no idea what it is, so I guess that it's a Gould Campbell. Sometimes those are simply amazing, and it wouldn't shock me to find one that could win WOTN over some seriously heavy hitters.

I'm sure by now you've guessed what happened. I was wrong about my bottle - the one I swore was mine was actually the Gould Campbell, and the "mystery bottle" that I couldn't figure out was my 1985 Graham.

So yes, I do have a tendency to pick my own bottles of Port, even blind.

[Alan Gardner]

I love the 85 Graham.
Good taste.
(but I also love the 85 Gould Campbell!).

[Roy Hersh]

And on that note ... turning this thread back to Madeira. I hope other event participants who have yet to respond to the questions raised in my 2/23 post will take a moment to provide their input.

I am now back at home after a handful of wine daze and nights in Vancouver trying to get my liver prepared for the next few months. I'm now working on getting venues locked in. One is a no-brainer and the other I do have a great contact for, hopefully both will be ready, willing and able to play.

Last week, when looking at finalzing which bottles are coming for each of the events, (not including table wines ... YET), I realized that ERIC R. appears on our guest list for both events. I went through the thread, as did Glenn to make sure I was not missing anything. No mention by Eric R. I checked if I have any emails from Eric, who IS a member of FTLOP. Nope! So, I am baffled how/why I'd even write in a name without having received an email from one of our subscribers or someone who asked to be included in this thread. That all took place last Tues./Wed. leading up to my Canada trip. It left one precious seat at the table, unfilled.

So today, I reached out to one subscriber/Madeira aficionado to see if he'd be interested in joining us. He has many commitments in play at the moment and will be a late "yes or no" in about 2 weeks. That being said, he was overtly enthused about the Saturday tasting, mentioning it exceeded any expectations he had of what he expected to be considered, "low bar" and is also excited for the high bar event too.

I am going to save ERIC R.'s spot for this other individual. That still leaves a couple of available spots for the high-bar event and if one person responds that they really want to come to both ... really badly ... and is willing to share GREAT bottles, then I will likely add one more opening for that individual for Saturday too. That being said, that would have to be before the end of this week. So if any of you know a Madeira lover/subscriber that might want to join us, there's a handful of days left to get on board. To be clear, IF that person only wants to come on Sunday, that would be ok, but conversely, not ok if only for Saturday ... as we are trying to get one person to join us for both. If not, that is ok too.

The first post in the thread has been officially UPDATED.