Army Rumour Service

Register a free account today to join our community
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site, connect with other members through your own private inbox and will receive smaller adverts!

Pass the Port

Yes the RAF do "Fly" the port around the table.  Suppose it represents a real plane probably no more than 4 or 5 in the mess (decanters and aeroplanes) about 50 people to make them fly.
 
Surely the RAF explanation is just the junior service trying to get some form of tradition. Nearly their centenary!

In my mess the port is allowed to touch the table (too expensive otherwise with dropped decanters) but of two decanters arrive at the same person then said person is bottled (champagne).
 
Bang-on Jezebel!  And here is some more trivia on it...

Centuries of tradition demand that port should always be passed from the right to the left, a custom that is rooted in mythology of many cultures around the world.  
 • The decanter or bottle is placed before the host, who serves the person on his right, then himself before passing the bottle to the guest on his left, who serves himself then passes again to the left.
 • Etiquette demands that the decanter or bottle be passed all the way around the table to be set once again in front of the host.
 • British customs deem it poor manners to ask for the decanter. If an errant guest fails to pass the port, the host traditionally asks, "Do you know the Bishop of Winchester?" A guest well-versed in port etiquette will abashedly pass the port along. If the guest answers, "No," he or she is told "He is an awfully good fellow – but he never passes the port."

I wonder whether this last point has anything to do with the phrase 'bashing the bishop'   ;)
 
Paoli said:
I suspect that the Navy may have picked left as easy to remember (Port being left in matelot - why the hell is that? Now there's a question).

A bit off topic, but maybe I can answer Paoli's question.

Long before Port and Starboard the correct naval terms were Larboard (from loading board) and Starboard (from steering board), which on a windy storm battered deck on a high sea could quite easily be confused for one another. Potential for disaster.

The term Port for the left-hand side of a ship dates to the 16th century, but it was not until the 1840s that both the Royal and US Navies officially abandoned the term Larboard in favor of Port.

Most sources believe it is because the left-hand side of a ship was the side typically put next to the wharf or port, but it is quite possible that Port was chosen to replace the term for left because the Port was passed to the left.
 
Just to further confuse the issue, I have attended formal dinners inside and outside the Armed Forces where the port should never leave the table. Pouring therefore requires angling the decanter on its side to pour your own glass. If you're at the far end of the circuit then it can be extremely tricky, requiring one to hold ones glass below the table edge to get the angle steep enough to eke some of the dregs into ones glass.

My personal opinion is that it's all b*llocks, but one should always be aware of the traditions of any given Mess or College because ones hosts may not think so.

IF
 
The Royal Navy has a wonderful tradition concerning its toasts which I believe change depending upon the night of the week on which the dinner is being held.

I was on board HMS Fearless many years ago at a Ward Room dinner. The Toast was, "Wives and lovers." We all dutifully repeated the words and in the reflective silence which followed came the almost imperceptible whisper "...may they never meet."
 
Jelly_Baby said:
Surely the RAF explanation is just the junior service trying to get some form of tradition. Nearly their centenary!

My old boss used to thunder as loud as possible if there was a crab within earshot: "Traditions be büggered - the RAF only have bad habits".

One more in the pot for touching/not touching the table. Messes (from 'mess of pottage') were originally formed through the officers clubbing together to buy food and the necessary eating implements (plates, cutlery etc) so that they might dine in a civilised fashion whilst campaigning. One of the major purchases was the mess table which would be built by local carpenters so that it might be broken down into mule-sized loads (hence the venerable multi-sectioned designs still found in some messes today). It was rather expensive so the PMC was apt to ban the port from touching the table to avoid 'warts' sliding it along like a cowboy's bourbon and damaging the most prized mess possession.

Contrast this theory with the fact that some tables like the Chilianwallah table belonging to 1 R ANGLIAN (I think) still bear the marks of the patient's spurs from when it was used by the surgeon as a makeshift operating table during the battle of the same name (Indian Mutiny 1857).

So there's damage and there's honourable damage.
 
Not only does one have to master passing the port, do not forget about learning to pass the snuff as many Regts do as well.

Do not shoot a member of the RAF until you can see the whites of his socks.
 
westwinger said:
The Royal Navy has a wonderful tradition concerning its toasts which I believe change depending upon the night of the week on which the dinner is being held."

Indeed. They are as follows:

Monday: Our ships at sea
Tuesday: Our men
Wednesday: Ourselves (because no bugger else will)
Thursday: Bloody wars and sickly seasons (swift promotion for us)
Friday: A willing foe and sea room (prize money aplenty)
Saturday: Wives and sweethearts...may they never meet
Sunday: Absent Friends
 
The port stays on the table in the RN mostly so the ship wouldn't come up to meet the decanter when pitching and rolling. Nothing worse than lost alcohol.

Some people take it to the extreme and keep contact with the table when pouring. Bit messy sometimes though.
 
Serving port in a decanter involves its own rituals. According to accepted tradition, it is the responsibility of the host to taste the port first and begin passing it with his left hand, clockwise around the table. The port is passed from his left hand to the right hand of the person on his left and it is the responsibility of each guest to serve himself (the decanter must never cross the table or be touched by the hand of a lady).

The fact that it is the left hand and not the right has its own historical reasons: it corresponds to the side of the heart and is in order for the right hand to remain free (the side of the sword) for any eventuality. :wink:
 
I was sure that there was a thread about port on here but I've trawled every page of the Officers forum and it isn't there. Nor did it come up on a search, so I'll just put it here..

I have been given a bottle of Fortnum&Mason LBV port (1997, bottled 2002) and having looked on the internet and asked my friends I really haven't got the blindest idea when it will be best to drink it. I've never known anything practical about port and this has really thrown me.

Any ideas?

:?
 
Berry Bros & Rudd on Vintage Port Drinkability
1997 Outstanding Hold
1995 Outstanding Hold
1994 Classic Hold
1992 Outstanding Hold
1991 Outstanding Hold
1987 Very Good Hold
1986 Good Hold
1985 Classic Drink or Hold
1984 Good Drink or Hold
1983 Outstanding Hold
1982 Good Drink or Hold
1980 Very Good Drink or Hold
1979 Average Drink
1978 Good Drink
1977 Classic 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
1934 Outstanding Drink
1931 Classic Drink
1927 Classic Drink
1920 Very Good Drink
1917 Very Good Drink
1912 Classic Drink
1911 Good Drink
1908 Outstanding Drink
1904 Outstanding Drink
1900 Outstanding Drink
 
Top