Seattle area tasting, January 29, 2011

[Andy Velebil]

Wanted to wish everyone a great time and I hope all the bottles show their best. Wish I could be up there with you all but I'm working tonight and tomorrow and couldn't make it.

[dom carter]

Hope all goes well, the port(s) shows well and you all have a fun evening.

Dom

[Andy Velebil]

So how did it go, we're all dying to know! Details please!

[Glenn E.]

Still recovering!

I'll post some notes later today. After all that Port, I really need to go for a run this morning and burn off some calories!

[Roy Hersh]

I will be featuring our tasting in photos, TN's and rankings by the group in a newsletter that will be released prior to departing for Portugal mid-month.

Glenn deserves lots of credit for his great organization. Unfortunately we had 2 TCA infected bottles. Overall picture is that of the big 3 vintages: 1980, 1983 and 1985 ... the 1985 was best, followed by 1980 and in last place was 1983. I'd appreciate patience for just about 2 more weeks and I'll have the article up and to everybody!

[Glenn E.]

Since Roy is going to be doing a big feature article on the tasting in the next newsletter, I won't spoil it by posting any specifics. You'll just have to wait for the newsletter to get those!

I will say that it was a lot of fun. We did the whole tasting blind and broken into 3 flights, mostly by vintage, but with a wildcard tossed into each flight just to mix things up. That meant we had to guess the vintage for each flight, pick our favorites, and then try to identify the wildcard. Roy kept the wildcards pretty close to the vintage and also added a couple of sneaky last-second Ports to the lineup, so it was pretty hard to pick them out.

A huge thanks to everyone who attended - these tastings only work because of the people who participate. We actually managed to stay ahead of schedule for most of the night, so by the end of the 3rd flight when my wife arrived with the pizza we still had time to eat it before having to vacate the room. And that's when Elaine produced a wonderful home made chocolate torte with a raspberry/Port sauce! WOW!

Stop drooling on your keyboard, you'll short it out!

[Eric Ifune]

Thank you Elaine for that torte with the ganache and Port sauce. It was terrific and a beautiful ending!