CanonLaw.info

Dr. Edward Peters

Updated 26 dec 2012

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Gertrud: Would you like a cup of tea, mother-in-law?

Mother-in-law: Thank you my sweet. I'd rather have a glass of port.

Gertrud (1964)

+

Catherine: Where are your sons?

Henry II: They're locked in the cellar. The royal children are aging along with the royal port.

The Lion in Winter (1968)

The Vintage Port Site

My worst

(not my only, but my worst) experience

with corked wine:

Thursday,

August 16, 2007

1991 Robert Mondavi

Cabernet Sauvignon

$ 79.95 (several

years ago).

I like screw-top bottles!

Dessert Wines

For just over two years (January 1999 to February 2001), Dr. Peters wrote the dessert wine column for Gilbert! Magazine, sharing space with no less a wine expert than Hilaire Belloc (who happened to be dead at the time.) Peters' essays appeared in more or less the following order:

Port I: In the beginning . . .	Port II: Flee bad port!
Port III: White port	Port IV: TF '70
Sauternes I: Felix Culpa	Sauternes II: Brideshead Revisited
Port V: Tawnies	Port VI: Port Day
Port VII: Kindly 1977	Port VIII: Australians
Tokaji I: Royal Tokaji '95	Commendaria I: St. John's

Briefly Noted

Godfrey Spence, The Port Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide (1997)

A delightful read, beautifully laid out. An excellent first book on port, though long-time devotees doubtless will consult it regularly. It could have been a smidge longer, as Spence obviously draws on a vast storehouse of port knowledge, but that's a small criticism. The book greatly enhances one's understanding of, and enjoyment of, fine porto.

Some Notable Quotes on Port

It [is] much more sensible to offer yourself for admiration because you had drunk three bottles of port at a sitting than to offer yourself for admiration (as Lady Grove does) because you think it right to say "port wine" while other people think it right to say "port." G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, 1 February 1908.

I could tell [my cousin] that all the wickedness of that time was like the spirit they mix with the pure grape of the Douro, heady stuff full of dark ingredients; it at once enriched and retarded the whole process of adolescence as the spirit checks the fermentation of the wine, renders it undrinkable, so that it must lie in the dark, year in, year out, until it is brought up at last fit for the table. Charles Ryder, in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1944).

"No. He only drinks one glass of port a day." Mrs. Railton-Bell, demolishing a defense suggested for Maj. Pollock against a minor morals charge, in Separate Tables (1958).

James: "Let's see, now. Eighty-year-old brandy, beluga caviar, and port, Grahams 1928." Siegfried: "James, you've struck gold this time." All Creatures Great and Small. by James Herriot.

Miss Freneau: "We had martinis before dinner, white wine with the fish, red wine with the main course, champagne with the desert, cognac with the coffee, and port after dinner."

Mr. Eckland: "Sounds great!" ...Father Goose (1964).

"I think another glass of port won't harm us." Aunt Gussie to Miss Melvyn, My Brilliant Career (1979).

Wormold: "On this auspicious occasion…"

Milly: "Spell it."

Wormold: "Oh, not after a couple of bottles of Krug ’52." Our Man in Havana (1960).

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Port Vintage Chart

from here: http://www.intowine.com/portvin.html

Vintage	Rating	Drinkability
2000	Classic	Hold
1997	Outstanding	Hold
1995	Outstanding	Hold
1994	Classic	Hold
1992	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1991	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1987	Very Good	Drink or Hold
1986	Good	Drink or Hold
1985	Classic	Drink or Hold
1984	Good	Drink or Hold
1983	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1982	Good	Drink or Hold
1980	Very Good	Drink or Hold
1979	Average	Drink
1978	Good	Drink
1977	Classic	Drink or Hold
1976	Average	Drink
1975	Good	Drink
1974	Average	Drink
1972	Average	Drink
1970	Classic	Drink or Hold
1969	Average	Drink
1968	Average	Drink
1967	Very Good	Drink
1966	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1965	Good	Drink
1964	Good	Drink
1963	Classic	Drink or Hold
1962	Good	Drink
1961	Good	Drink
1960	Very Good	Drink
1958	Good	Drink
1957	Very Good	Drink
1955	Outstanding	Drink
1954	Very Good	Drink
1952	Good	Drink
1950	Very Good	Drink
1948	Classic	Drink or Hold
1947	Outstanding	Drink
1945	Classic	Drink or Hold
1942	Very Good	Drink
1938	Good	Drink
1935	Classic	Drink or Hold
1934	Outstanding	Drink
1931	Classic	Drink or Hold
1927	Classic	Drink or Hold
1920	Very Good	Drink
1917	Very Good	Drink
1912	Classic	Drink or Hold
1911	Good	Drink
1908	Outstanding	Drink
1904	Outstanding	Drink
1900	Outstanding	Drink

More Ratings:

Churchill's Reviews

=====================================

Sauternes Vintage Chart

from here: http://www.intowine.com/sautvin.html

Vintage	Rating	Drinkability
2003	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
2002	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
2001	Classic	Hold
2000	Very Good	Drink or Hold
1999	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1997	Outstanding	Drink or Hold
1996	Very Good	Drink or Hold
1995	Very Good	Drink or Hold
1992	Average	Drink
1991	Average	Drink
1990	Classic	Drink
1989	Classic	Drink or Hold
1988	Outstanding	Hold
1987	Average	Drink
1986	Outstanding	Hold
1985	Very Good	Drink
1984	Below Average	Drink
1983	Classic	Drink or Hold
1982	Average	Drink
1981	Good	Drink
1980	Good	Drink