Poker Night

Quinta do Noval 40 Year Tawny Porto ($130) -- Portugal. Bottled in 2004 from wines in oak for more than 40 years. Having reviewed the faxed wine list from the Club for the annual poker night with the boys, I decided to BYOB a few bottles of Cab (1998 Wightman and 2002 Waterstone) and a special treat for dessert.

I had a few bottles left over from last year's Hyde Park Port Club Dinner, so I thought what the hell, what better group to share some good old Port.

The Tawny showed better age than me. The color was more faded than the deep red of a vintage port, and had a honeyed nuance. The finish was long and over the two hours that it was opened, the finish grew longer. Great stuff!

The best part was that most of the boys were more interested in cards than this wine (I had been tapped out quickly), so they mostly ignored the Porto. And even better, having polished off about half the bottle personally, I had dreaded the next morning, but here I am blogging away and filling Christmas orders.

Now if I can only get the cigar odors out of my suit jacket! Don't tell the Fire Department, but they actually disconnected the smoke alarms in the card room due to the dense haze.