What have you opened this week?

[Gary Richardson]

Opened a Cockburn 20 year tawny last night. This should carry me for a couple of days.

-- Gary

[Al B.]

A half bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1983, just to keep me going until tomorrow night.

[Derek T.]

A half bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1983, just to keep me going until tomorrow night.

I often find that SW83 is just the thing one requires before tasting every major vintage of Fonseca and Warre from 1955 to 1985 on a school night

[David Spriggs]

1985 Fonseca VP. This is my first Port in quite a while.

[Andy Velebil]

1981 Warre's LBV

[Marc J.]

1989 Warre Quinta da Cavadinha

[Eric Ifune]

Quevedo Special Reserve Tawny.

[Derek T.]

Fonseca 1955
Warre 1955
Fonsecsa 1960
Warre 1960
Fonseca 1963
Warre 1963
Fonseca 1966
Warre 1966
Fonseca 1970
Warre 1970
Fonseca 1977
Warre 1977
Fonseca 1985
Warre 1985

Yum, yum

[Andy Velebil]

1989 Warre Quinta da Cavadinha

Had this double blind at the Graham's Lodge this past June and loved it. I hope yours showed as well?

[Andy Velebil]

Fonseca 1955
Warre 1955
Fonsecsa 1960
Warre 1960
Fonseca 1963
Warre 1963
Fonseca 1966
Warre 1966
Fonseca 1970
Warre 1970
Fonseca 1977
Warre 1977
Fonseca 1985
Warre 1985

Yum, yum

A great line up, but was it really fair to pit these two very different styles of VP's against each other? Or was there some surprises?

[Eric Menchen]

1977 Warres. May have to find more of this when the cellar is done.

[Marc J.]

1989 Warre Quinta da Cavadinha

Had this double blind at the Graham's Lodge this past June and loved it. I hope yours showed as well?

It showed beautifully! Given that it was from a non-generally declared year, I was quite impressed with it and I'll be on the lookout for more bottles of it in the future.

[Al B.]

Fonseca 1955
Warre 1955
Fonsecsa 1960
Warre 1960
Fonseca 1963
Warre 1963
Fonseca 1966
Warre 1966
Fonseca 1970
Warre 1970
Fonseca 1977
Warre 1977
Fonseca 1985
Warre 1985

Yum, yum

A great line up, but was it really fair to pit these two very different styles of VP's against each other? Or was there some surprises?

I would never have thought to pitch these two houses against each other - but it was an amazing tasting. The two houses complimented each other, and while the majority preferred Fonseca more often than Warre, the difference was much smaller than I would have expected. And with all bottles showing pretty well, it was a great tasting.

[Rob C.]

Fonseca 1955
Warre 1955
Fonsecsa 1960
Warre 1960
Fonseca 1963
Warre 1963
Fonseca 1966
Warre 1966
Fonseca 1970
Warre 1970
Fonseca 1977
Warre 1977
Fonseca 1985
Warre 1985

Yum, yum

A great line up, but was it really fair to pit these two very different styles of VP's against each other? Or was there some surprises?

I would never have thought to pitch these two houses against each other - but it was an amazing tasting. The two houses complimented each other, and while the majority preferred Fonseca more often than Warre, the difference was much smaller than I would have expected. And with all bottles showing pretty well, it was a great tasting.

We were indeed lucky with bottles - quality/condition was as consistently high as i think i have ever had at a big tasting where people each bring their own bottles.

In terms of suprises, W55 was the clear WOTN (followed by a trio of Fonsecas then another Warre all in a bunch), but the general feeling was that the Warre 63, 66 and 70 stood toe to toe with the Fonsecas of the same vintages. Overall Fonseca just shaded it - in particular due to the strength of the 85 and the W60 being slightly oxidised. But had we included the 80 and 83, the overall result could well have been different.

[Frederick Blais]

Tonight Gustavo Devesas was in town, so beside the nice canadian oysters with Gruner Veltliner, local beers, scalops, sea bass, high quality beaujolais.... I made him taste the canadian beef with Redoma Branco 2010, Bioma 2010 and Malvedos 1995 that really impressive!!!

[stenanders ivarsson]

We have opened Cocknurn 1970 and Warre 1970. They got very high scores and the 1970 is wonderful now

Sten Ivarsson
Malmö Sweden
Member of the Wine Society 18%
Member of the Danish Port Wine Club est 1981 in Copenhagen

[Andy Velebil]

Graham's 10 Year Old Tawny (B. 2011)

[Roy Hersh]

Rob,

Wild to hear that the 1970 Warre could hold a candle to the Fonseca 1970. Amazing actually.

[Derek T.]

Rob,

Wild to hear that the 1970 Warre could hold a candle to the Fonseca 1970. Amazing actually.

Amazing, but true. I was there!

I was a huge sceptic of this comparative tasting as I truely believed that Fonseca would blow Warre off the table in every vintage. I was very wrong.

We did have the benefit of having many excellent provenance bottles. Whilst the Warre vintages were obviously not the masive beasts that some of the Fonseca's are, the quality of what we tasted was simply astounding. A great warre might not live as long as a great Fonseca, but when they are on song and at their peak they stand up very well. This was one of the best tastings of mature VP I have every attended, and I have been to a few

[Andy Velebil]

1994 Quinta do Crasto LBV Port (Unfiltered).

tasting note to follow soon...