1991 port horizontal, 9th December

On Monday evening, G invited me to attend a gathering of the Port Forum, as he had organised a horizontal tasting of 1991 port. I made sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day beforehand, and successfully got myself to the Boot and Flogger. Although I was slightly early, several people were there already and glasses were being filled.

Ready for action!

There were 14 in attendance and 16 ports to taste, a formidable line-up. While I enjoy port, I don't have much of my own and what I do have isn't ready, so I'm not very au fait with how past vintages stack up, but it soon became apparent that 1991 was not held in high regard by the assembled company. One fellow guest spent much of the evening sighing and I could only conclude that his cellar was far more impressive. Still, for me, this was a very interesting experience and I enjoyed most of them.

The full line up

This was not in fact my first time attending the forum - a few weeks ago, I was invited by G to a smaller blind tasting where everyone brought a mystery bottle along. The take-home point for me that evening was that no two bottles of port, especially old port, are the same because their history and storage has a significant influence on what comes out of the bottle. Previously I had thought that if you drank say a Croft 1966 and then you drank another Croft 1966 they would be virtually identical, but it seems that's unlikely to be the case.

Returning to the 1991s, G was pleased to have found this bottle of Quinta do Noval Nacional going for less than the market rate in a famous wine shop in New York, of all places, and had arranged to get it shipped to D who had brought it over for this occasion. As I'm sure anyone who knows their port will know, this stuff is rare and commands an unusually high price, typically going for 10 times as much as other ports, so it's not often one gets to drink it. However, it failed to shine amongst the competition. For me it was accomplished and did have a lovely finish, but wasn't even in my top 5. G told me that this was from the "bad period" at Nacional, which perhaps explains it.

At the end of the evening we were each required to allocate six points between the wines, and the final scores are above. The scoring system seemed to end up giving disproportionately high marks to the top two wines, but it was clear that Croft and Taylor Vargellas were the winners.

I managed not to disgrace myself by getting my score in early and giving three points to the Croft. My notes say "this Croft is marvellous" and for me it had plums (high quality plums according to G), dark chocolate, liquorice and maybe even some leather. It was serious and less sweet than some, and we thought it would be fine for another 15 years.

Runner up was this Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, which was classy, with prunes, dates and figs - I described it as panforte in a glass. It had a great finish. I didn't get much on the nose, possibly because I tasted it after the Cockburn Quinta Dos Canais, which was the main dud of the evening, with an extraordinary whiff of nail polish cleaner. "Genuinely undrinkable" said G.

Other honourable mentions go to the normal Noval which I liked although nobody else gave it any points, the Quinta de la Rosa and the Nieport.

All done!

This was a fascinating opportunity to try these wines side by side and thanks G for inviting me!

Lunch at mine, 8th December

Last Sunday, I was joined by G and D for lunch at AduV Towers. I was quite excited as the line-up was spectacular!

Wine Out Thursday had occurred earlier in the week, and one of the treasures I took out of my cellar was this Corton Charlemagne 2013 from Maison en Belles Lies. I've had the privilege to visit this domaine three times, and it's always been a terrific experience. The wines are biodynamic and fascinating, and Pierre Fenals is a lovely chap. Reviewing my notes from the 2014 trip, I see that he shares this vineyard with Bonneau du Martray and Coche-Dury. I can think of worse neighbours!

G sprang into action and donned the rubber gloves in order to deconstruct some smoked fish which he'd picked up at the stall in Borough Market. We had a mixture of smoked trout, smoked mackerel and smoked salmon, along with some evil dark rye bread. The wine itself was a beautiful golden colour, with a buttery nose, and tasted exquisite. On the palate, I got a lot of tropical fruit - pineapple, mango and passionfruit were all mentioned, and it had a wonderful line of acidity down the middle. Fully mature now, it was the perfect accompaniment to the smoked fish, and definitely a wine to savour. I'm delighted that I have five more bottles, but don't think they're going to hang about for long.

It was my turn to spring into action and heat up the beef carbonnade, which I'd made the previous day with additional marrow bone and stock bones. This was a mixed success, as the stock bones had splintered and added a certain Russian roulette edge to proceedings. In future I think I'll just make my own beef stock instead of attempting to cut corners!

With this, we had a Clos de Vougeot 2011 from Odoul-Coquard, which had been carefully cellared in G's country estate but actually belonged to me. It's delightful to have a stash tucked away which tends to be out of sight, out of mind. I had high expectations of this wine and we weren't disappointed. It was a nice dark colour and looked glossy and appealing. G described it as "perfumed, gorgeous" and it certainly tasted expensive - black forest gateau in a glass or even cherries in kirsch. Because 2011 was a relatively light vintage, this was drinking wonderfully now and needed no more time. For me, it was a great wine to share, as it was so powerful I'm not sure I'd have wanted more than a couple of glasses.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had this Beaulieu Vineyards Private Reserve 1969 contributed by D. It emerged that he has owned this bottle of wine for longer than G and I have been on the planet. Now that puts the marshmallow delayed gratification test in perspective! This was a wonderful dark colour and had an amazing herbaceous nose with mint and eucalyptus. On the palate, it was dark and intense and I believe I made an unfortunate reference to After Eights, only to correct myself - it was of course Bendicks bittermints which I had in mind. It had a lovely warm finish of baked plums, and G drank the dregs, which says a lot. We had our doubts that it was really 12.5% alcohol as claimed by the label. It was amazing to think that it was 50 years old, and still on its plateau.

D told us that 1969 was an overlooked vintage, and they don't make them like they used to. I'd spotted some a recent vintage in the Pennsylvanian booze store, but apparently 1974 was the last good vintage. Damn!

SPNS dinner, 6th December

I see that another month has passed without any blog posts, largely because I was away from London for 3 weekends in a row. There's a lot to catch up on.

Last night was the December gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. G and I arrived fashionably late (by two minutes) having braved Oxford Street which was full of people not looking where they were going, while Wannabe by the Spice Girls blared out of Top Shop. Tate Britain is clearly bang on trend with its post-apocalyptic Christmas decorations.

Meanwhile at the Savile Club someone was having a 40th birthday party and the far more melodious sound of a saxophone and double bass greeted us as we walked into the bar. I produced the first wine of the evening, this Delamotte Blancs de Blancs 2002 and the day immediately improved.

This was generally well-received - it was great fizz from a great vintage, fully mature, with some nice autolytic qualities (thanks ACC) otherwise known as the smell of digestive biscuits. It was yeasty, toasty and creamy and we all agreed it would be even better served with some canapes. That wish may be fulfilled next September as I have the remainder of the case set aside for a certain  big day!

We moved upstairs to the dining room and got cracking on this Puligny 1998 from Etienne Sauzet while we perused the menu. This was provided by P who got it at auction. Despite its lack of provenance, it was a beautiful golden colour and again fully mature, quite unctuous (or gooey, to use T's word of choice) and buttery on the palate, with a good finish. I had planned to save some to go with my starter but in the end that proved unnecessary, as T had brought along a rose.

This was Mun, Rosato Marche le Calcinara 2018 from Italy. It was a pleasing deep pink colour, bright and fresh, with red fruits and almost bracing acidity. P got raspberry sorbet on the finish. Perhaps not the most serious wine ever, but enjoyable easy drinking.

With our mains, we had two reds. In the blue corner was this Moulin-a-Vent 1999 from Domaine des Grandes Vignes, provided by ACC. This had a truly remarkable nose! Funky seemed the most polite best word to describe it. T absolutely loved it. It was certainly still alive and kicking, and P went to town on the descriptions - elderberry, liquorice, chestnuts and rose hips all receiving a mention. A fascinating wine with lots to talk about!

In the red corner was something far more traditional, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1987 from Robert Mondavi, provided by G. This was a very dark colour, and had a lovely cedary nose. It was fully mature, archetypal cab sauv, probably quite high in alcohol, and nicely mellow now. It reminded me of a good claret and I liked it a lot.

No risk of getting these two mixed up

G had to commandeer a pink corkscrew to keep things moving along

The last wine of the evening, contributed by D, was this 1971 German beerenauslese. I nobly volunteered to write down its name and will attempt to reproduce it here: Hallgartener Jungfer from Weingut Georgshof. It was a remarkable dark amber colour, almost the same colour as the bottle, and for me, relatively dry for a sweet wine. I found it quite grapey while D detected honey. It was 11% alcohol and everyone's notes are enthusiastic. It disappeared remarkably rapidly!

P went off to get some cheese (a remarkable truffled number) and while he was gone, the thought of opening his reserve bottle of white occurred to some people who shall not be named. P was happy to go along with the plan, but sadly the wine itself, a Verget Puligny 2000, turned out to be over the hill, although T said it went quite well with his potted trout savoury.

After that, it was agreed that a bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1980 would be in order to go with the cheese. We'd given up making notes by this stage but G has helpfully supplied some for me. It had a restrained nose but delivered on the palate and was full, thick, sweet, plummy and really quite long. Given that it was "popped and poured", it showed very well and would have been even better with some time in the decanter. I've been feeling fine today - just goes to show it's worth drinking the good stuff. Thanks everyone for another very enjoyable evening!