What have you opened this week?

[Eric Menchen]

I have a strong suspicion that the whole notion of protruding corks signalling poor storage is either a complete myth or an almost complete myth.

Perhaps when there's a blazing hot day forecast, I'll take some cheap ruby, replace the T stopper with a new driven cork, and leave it in the car for a few hours to see if the cork budges at all..

I appreciate your skepticism, but wonder how well a brand new driven cork serves the experiment vs. one which is old, perhaps slightly shrunk, and/or decayed.

[Tom Archer]

but wonder how well a brand new driven cork serves the experiment vs. one which is old, perhaps slightly shrunk, and/or decayed

In such cases, any pressure within the bottle resulting from temperature change manifests itself as seepage - the seal of a degraded cork is overcome long before there is sufficient force to displace it.

If you do the maths on how much pressure a young cork needs to displace it - typically around 7-8 bar - and how much the volume of a bottle will increase with temperature (after deducting the slight increase in volume caused by the thermal expansion of the glass) then one can deduce that a bottle high filled to 1/4" from the cork, and subjected to a severe +50F thermal shock, might develop sufficient internal pressure to move the cork. However, with a more normal fill level, you would not achieve sufficient internal pressure until the alcohol started to boil..

[Andy Velebil]

On vacation and starting to adjust to jet lag. On flight over Singapore Airline served Dow’s 10 year Tawny. I had many tasting samples of it and can now confirm the new blend is much better than the old one :)

[David Spriggs]

Brunheda 40 year old tasting sample.

[Roy Hersh]

NONE.

A slow death by starvation and TFP, which now stands for: Thirst For Port.

[Glenn E.]

2011 Graham's Vintage Port
2011 Graham's The Stone Terraces
2015 Graham's The Stone Terraces
2016 Graham's Vintage Port
2016 Graham's The Stone Terraces

NV DR L70 70-year old Tawny Port
NV Quinta do Mourao "60"

It was a good weekend.

[Tom Archer]

Delaforce 85

Upon decanting, the wine looked dull and flat in the decanter, not a good sign. Thereafter on the first day this came over as a woefully thin wine, which gradually improved, the last drop on day five being really very pleasant.

But this is not Delaforce's finest offering - one to drink up I think..

Score 3-2

[David Spriggs]

Upon decanting, the wine looked dull and flat in the decanter, not a good sign. Thereafter on the first day this came over as a woefully thin wine, which gradually improved

Unfortunately, I have had my fair share of 1985s that appear to be thin and weak. But also a lot of bottle variation. It was a great vintage early on, and for better or worse I have quite a bit of it.

[Roy Hersh]

The mini bottle samples of Graham's The Stone Terraces, a great little vertical. Thank you Glenn. There was one that stood out from the others. Jeez, it was like a punch in the face. After I tell you which, I'll say, "it was impossible to miss that 2016!"

Now watch and I'll be wrong. LOL

Nah, I don't think so.

[Moses Botbol]

1998 Graham Malvedos - pop and pour was really sweet and savory to me. Elys thought it tasted like cough syrup and was not a fan. Will revisit it in a couple of days.

[Tom Archer]

Butler Nephew 1955

What a star the '55 vintage is - even the weaker players have a sublime elegance that endures and endures - light, fine, and faultlessly delicious..

8-8

[Al B.]

Butler Nephew 1955

What a star the '55 vintage is - even the weaker players have a sublime elegance that endures and endures - light, fine, and faultlessly delicious..

8-8

1955 is Michael Broadbent’s favourite vintage.

[Roy Hersh]

Yet the "'55 at 55" tasting in London back in 2010, was a perfect example of what could go wrong on a bottle-by-bottle basis. Vintage Ports which should have shown much better, were fairly lackluster at that specific event. It happens and I've seen it with an entire Claret tasting with mostly magnums that evening too, and a great Burgundy tasting which bottles exemplified the rich and famous, many DOA. But the worst example was a vertical of Dominus, with every top vintage going back to their beginning and best years being so surreal and underwhelming, someone googled to find out what the barometric pressure was looking like that night. It happens to all wines on rare occasions, but that 1955 Vintage Port evening stood out and had lots of us scratching our heads.


Now to Tom's comment on corks being pushed. He really only reflects on what heat/expansion provides for this outcome. I have personally seen it play out more times by wine freezing and the cork being pushed out. My worst horror was a 1994 Insignia in magnum which showed up with the cork raised half way out of the bottle, indeed I risked having it shipped. However, it came from an East coast retailer and they did not mention that they were planning to ship in the harshest weather that year. Lots had leaked from the mag and when I brought it to the attention of the retailer, (which I never will do when it comes to TCA) the very generous response was, "drink that one and I'll ship another when the weather warms up some more. When I say generously, as when the time came ... he sent me a 3L bottle. At 25 years of age, this is the year I have been waiting for to open it! But Port corks can as easily be pushed out and leak from cold temps every bit as easily as they can from warm temperatures!

[Tom Archer]

Yet the "'55 at 55" tasting in London back in 2010, was a perfect example of what could go wrong on a bottle-by-bottle basis.

That was the strange curse of the basement room at the RAF club, which we no longer use. Other rooms in the club are not a problem, but there is 'something' in the basement room that has spoiled several tastings. I suspect the ventilation system - possibly the chemicals used to prevent Legionella - but am not sure..

The more recent 55 horizontal at the Boot & Flogger was characterised by a glorious lineup - not one duff or feeble bottle..

As for Roy's point about the cold - yes, if it does get ultra cold, wine will freeze, expand, and possibly burst the bottle - but it's not an event we tend to encounter on this side of the pond..

[Mike K.]

1962 Maynard's Colheita.
Bought at their 'company store' in Porto last year.
Very rich, cocoa and caramel, nice acid.

[David Spriggs]

1962 Maynard's Colheita.
Bought at their 'company store' in Porto last year.
Very rich, cocoa and caramel, nice acid.

Nice! We visited them on last year's Port Harvest Tour 2. I had no expectations, but was impressed!

[Roy Hersh]

1985 Fonseca ... what was expected to be an 8 hour decant, turned into 11 hours, yesterday. It made no difference at all to this exceptional VP.

[David Spriggs]

1985 Fonseca ... what was expected to be an 8 hour decant, turned into 11 hours, yesterday. It made no difference at all to this exceptional VP.

Good to know. Love this Port!

[Derek T.]

Warre 1970 this evening. A simply stunning Port that rarely fails to deliver. Yummy.

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 00.13.56.png (851.34 KiB) Viewed 4666 times

[Tom Archer]

Fonseca '77

A deep intense wine that is still some way from full maturity still, but also a little short of the usual Fonseca exuberance, being somewhat dour and restrained.

I wondered what I would hazard if offered this wine blind and concluded that I would probably have guessed Dow 94.

Still, this the first bottle from a case of 12 and an excellent start - no hurry to drink through the others at all..

8-9