ThePortForum.com

From the ‘Emergency’ 1985 horizontal on Wednesday 26th December 2007, in which we tasted Dow 1985, Infantado 1985, two bottles of Ramos Pinto 1985, Graham 1985, Warre 1985, Croft 1985, and Offley 1968 Colheita.

The following day, Thursday 27th December 2007, these bottles were joined by Taylor 1985 and Andresen 1985.

Also see the review of the evening as a whole, and thread in which this tasting was arranged.

Dow 1985: at zero hours decanting: good deep red with a little purple. A ‘deep smell’ of hard-to-identify red fruit, though RSH smelt “socks†, and Steph (to general agreement) “cherry cola†. To taste rich fruit, and great length, though will be better after more time in the decanter. The fullest body of the evening at D+0.

This bad boy definitely needs time in the decanter.

Reddish clear with a hint of brown. Great color.

Cherry cola nose but it picked up a "forest floor/earthy" tones after an hour in the decanter ... Quite queer actually.

Orangey zest with a hint of white pepper on the palate.

one of the best bodies of the bunch with a spicy 40 second finish of burnt sugar and red berries.

Too young with only an hour of decanting.

This is something of a hobby horse for me; this wine needs 36, or, preferably, 48 hours to open up. At that stage, it becomes agreeable, and quite powerful, losing that rather rough edge which is characteristic of the newly decanted wine.

Overtired and emotional wrote:This is something of a hobby horse for me; this wine needs 36, or, preferably, 48 hours to open up. At that stage, it becomes agreeable, and quite powerful, losing that rather rough edge which is characteristic of the newly decanted wine.

whole heartedly agree on the decanting time being closer to the 30 hour mark then the 0 hour mark.

This was a toss up with the Taylor 85 as wine of the night.

Great balance in the wine.

Lots of red berries, with a fainter cherry cola.

Loads of sweet red fruit with a burnt orange zest.

great length that mellowed out and was alot smoother then the day before.

Hangover gone; glasses cleaned; dinner cooking. Time to write-up my tasting notes.

On the second day the Dow was the still the darkest, and nosing of lots of damson fruit (the cherry cola having gone). Beautifully sticky with strong tobacco-like notes (El Rey del Mundo, not Partagas). Not very sweet, but lots of fruit. My notes include a ‟☺”.

24 hours in the decanter worked perfectly: I doubt that (but did not test whether) more time was needed, but it certainly wasn’t too long. It was a close call whether the Dow or the Taylor was my favourite.

That will do for me then. Decant New Years Eve morning. Ham joint ordered for News Years Day. From midday, it'll be a ham buffet and Dows 85, carrying on into the night. Cant wait!

I liked the Dow 1985 just slightly more than the Taylor, making this my top port of the evening. Note to self- grab some, since I don't have any more.

Very dark color, fantastic smooth fruity nose, really delightful on the palate, tobacco, 'deep fruits' (whatever that means, it was in my notes), intense, absolutely fantastic, not overly sweet. 94 pts.