Dinner at T's, 19th Aug

On Friday night, G and I had the honour of an invitation to T's place in the Barbican to help him out with some items that needed drinking up.

It was a beautiful evening, sunny and warm. I met G outside his office and we wended our way past vast throngs of people clutching pints outside pubs before entering the concrete jungle that is the Barbican. We navigated to T's flat relatively successfully by our standards and found a range of enticing nibbles had been laid out along with a decanter of D'Oliveira's Sercial 1937.

This was a stunning bottle of madeira. It had a sharp, walnutty edge to it, and an overall intensity of flavour that went on for several minutes.

We stood on the balcony which had a great view of the terraces of the Barbican Centre. Fountains were playing on the lakes and there was a spectacular sunset with pink-tinged clouds. T couldn't have picked a better evening.

With dinner, we drank some white and pink Vina Tondonia from 2000 (the white is called Vina Gravonia). I think it's fair to say that the general consensus was that while the white was good and very interesting, the pink is unique and unlike anything else, and generally pretty damned wonderful. I have blogged about it before here.

After dinner came the coup de resistance, a bottle of 1945 Martinez port which T acquired in mysterious circumstances back in the 1960s and had somehow managed to resist drinking ever since. I think G had dropped hints that it probably did need drinking soon...

What I found surprising was how light it was. One tends to expect port to be raisiny and heavy, but this had flavours of caramel and was quite floral - G detected violets. It was very mellow and smooth and appeared not to have suffered from its occasional relocations.

I had to admit, sheepishly, that I'd never heard of Martinez - they're not one of the well-known port shippers like Croft or Taylors. It turns out that in 1960 they were sold to Harvey's of Bristol. However, apparently in 2006, Martinez was bought by the Symingtons who are planning to revitalise it as a brand. We shall see.

At the very end of the evening, T wheeled out this rather fine Cognac from Frapin which I could only manage a small glass of (lightweight) but it was very good, particularly with a salted caramel or seven from the Artisan du Chocolat. How did T know that I have recently developed an addiction to these, as well as to rillettes, which was served earlier in the evening? Spooky!

It was a wonderful evening and it a real privilege to get to drink both the Sercial and the port. Thanks!