Boston Offline Blog

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:19 pm

Today is arrival day in Boston (althouhgh Andy arrived yesterday) and although Saturday is the big dig, a vertical of Croft going way back in time ... tonight is the kickoff. Sean C. was the organizer along with UK's Alex Bridgeman and Sean's cronie Moses Botbol. As mentioned we also have Andy V., and Julian Wiseman (better known as JDAW) and a few guest that I have not met.

We're all bringing a bottle for tonight and my entry is a 1963 Offey that I may have had during one of two Offley verticals, but then again without my notes here, it is just as likely that this is the first time.

My bags both arrived and no delays in my flights last night, so maybe the string of bad luck has been broken. OK, signing off for now and will probably report back later. I have a feeling that knowing this crew, it might be 10 hours from now. Glad I had a nap today.

Keeping up with these young bloods is going to take a lot of focus!

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:09 am

Well we got off to a slow start tonight

with just a few Ports but tomorrow promises to be fantastic. Tonight was just to get the blood sugar flowing.

We started off with a fine example of 1927 Graham's which was followed by an amazing bottle of 1948 Taylor, which showed the greatness of this particular bottling. Then came a bottle of 1963 Offley which is one that is not often seen and it too really shined. Much to my surprise we then tackled the 1960 Taylor which I have had on several occasions, yet it was by far the best example of this VP that I hav ever tasted. As a prelude to tomorrow's Croft vertical we had two youngsters, the 1977 and 1985 which were interesting but had a hard time following some of the earlier bottles. This was just the warm up. We are all looking forward to the main event.

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:05 pm

Just made it back home from a long flight. A great weekend indeed, with one MAJOR surprise....I only wish I didn't have to cut out early today to catch my flight. I'll write more later as I must get to bed.

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:57 pm

First a big thanks to our host...Lord "C" who came back from beyond to lead us down a slippery slope!

The main Croft Vertical consisted of the following vintages
1970 (from magnum)
1966
1963
1960
1955
1945
1935
1933
1927
1924
1920
1917
1912
1896

Of course there was much more Port and dry wines consumed the two days prior and one day after. It was a great time and I was finally able to meet others that I've only known from online. I can't thank everyone enough for flying in from all over the globe for such a great time. A big two-thumbs-up to our host, Sean C., who allowed us to take over his place for this crazy line up of old VP's. I do believe Sean or I is going to write a guest corner article for this, so more to come in short order.