What is everyone having with their Christmas lunch?
I made a few failed auction attempts to get some antique curiosities from 35, 27 and 08 etc at auction so back to the old favourites of 66!
I have a few bottles of Graham, but I think they are too young and I want to save them ( that'll get the 03 lovers raging if nothing will!, come on have a go at me)
On balance I think I'll go for Dow '66, but is is my last one
However, just got my first bonus since the heady days of the internet boom - might just be able to buy about half a case with that to replace it :twisted: .
You absolutely right to think of the correct vintage for Christmas but I find the decision has nothing to do with the year but who is turning up ...
Well, as a newbie to the older vintages and I don't think I can break open any of the classics at Christmas, so I will be going for some Vargellas 1967.
Have you heard of any recent tasting notes on this wine?
I'm thinking about opening a Noval Nacional 78 on Christmas Day - I have never tasted Nacional of any vintage so I'm curious more than anything else about what I will find.
My Christmas lunch will be accompanied by a glass of water
I have to drive the family to my in-laws for tea on Christmas Day so don't have the opportunity to have anything alcoholic until we are back, around 9pm.
However, I do have my bottle of Vesuvio 2003 (just to make Stuart proud) and will drink that partly on Christmas Day, after the in-laws, and partly on Boxing Day (after an ice-hockey game I'm taking the family to see).
So I will be happy after all
And I know what my Christmas present is. That might also get opened and drunk over the holidays as my wife has been kind enough to wrap it a couple of weeks ago and - on my request - stood it upright last night.
Another Grahams 70 as per the recent London tasting (I have a limited cellar!) It will be good to focus on one port all day this time rather than 16 ports as we had on that great day.
MAnd as Simon's broadened it out a bit, I may also open a 1928 Maury recently bought from Farrs - we'll see how things are going.
My brother is opening a bottle of Taylor's '70 that I gave him as a present about 10 years ago...
BUT
I have just discovered that it's been stood upright ever since...!!
OK, as a top earning lawyer, he's 10/10, but as a cellarman, he doesn't register!
Still, I suppose it's an interesting exercise in testing the norms of wine storage - however, I shall put a reserve bottle of Dow '63 in the car, lest it be beyond redemption!
I'm going to have a bottle of 1985 Fonseca after Christmas dinner. I was thinking of 1985 Grahams but I just received those today and they're all shaken up.
Well, the mis-stored Taylor's '70 was drinkable, but much tawnier and faded than I would normally have expected - and the dregs made excellent gravy.
This evening I opened a Niepoort '83 Colheita (bottled in '93). The simlarity between this and the Taylors was remarkable.
Besides the ports, we have spent the last couple of days comparing a variety of medium/high budget French red table wines with high budget (but cheaper) Australian challengers.
This is the wrong forum for a blow by blow account, but the French have a lot to be worried about!
I had a Quarles Harris 1977 over the last two days, and liked it very much. Very mature, but still some potential I think. There was not to much alcohol, I rather found it soft, wellbalanced, not to sweet.
I liked this.
With the family yesterday it was a Graham's 1991 VP. I did not take any notes but still has a dark ruby color, expressive and sweet nose of licorine, plum and cherry jam, mouth is soft, very sweet. Not a deep VP, everything is melted, no backbone but the fruit is still young so it can hold a few years but ready to drink.
Living the dream and now working for a Port company
Thanks for the note on the Quarles Harris. I bought 3 bottles of this wine from a supermarket in Belgium about 8 years ago. I have one left and have been curious to know what it is like. Thanks to your comment, I won't be in a rush to drink it.
For me it was a bottle of '77 Grahams that I had noticed had just started to leak, glad I did too, as its tannins were fully resolved and smooth. My family also enjoyed a Gilbert's 1940 Colheita that was supposed to have been consumed on my Father's birthday in mid-December but for one reason or another (a far too late night at Morton's), we had to delay. It was a bit of a surprise as it had a cork-cap instead of a fully driven cork, and no bottling date (which means it likely was bottled before 1974), so I was a bit skeptical about how well it would have held up. I frankly expected it to be a bit (or more) oxidized and dominated by the coffee flavors I generally find in cork-cap bottles that are more than 10 years old. But no, it was quite pleasant, and if I could ever find a chocolate that smelled like the cork cap...why...
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Kevin B. Kelly
A Port Enthusiast
Circumstances did not allow me to transport, stand and decant my Nacional 78 properly so I left it for another day. Instead, I opened a bottle of Graham's "The Tawny" that I will start another thread on as it is the first time I have tasted it and want to know what it actually is
What a diverse lineup of wines for Christmas. I sent a case of wine ahead to my inlaws as I was going to be spending a week there in the snowy backwoods of Michigan. Sadly, I did not pack any special Ports so I had to rely on the fine table wines, Champers and a pair of bottles of 1989 Taylor's LBV. I had saved these for a special time, but these were just middling efforts and sated my Port desire. My inlaws are clueless about wine, so there was no reason to ship out and ply them with something of a higher caliber.
I am glad to be back home and at my own computer again. I hope you all enjoyed a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Chanukah to those of you that celebrate it. Now, what to open for New Years Eve?
that'll get the 03 lovers raging if nothing will!, come on have a go at me)
