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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.

Croft 1985, a bonus last-minute addition to the line-up. red, with a hint of brown at the edge. At D+0 a bitter nose, perhaps tainted with TCA. JG claiming “grassy†. We all shook our heads at the taste.

But an hour later it had gained complexity, gained body, and gained length. It had become an entirely reasonable port! Not great, but entirely reasonable.

no decant: slight VA? grassy nose with a slight woody undertone.

funk blew away.

reddish brown with a slightly cloudy color.

after 1+ hours, this opened up with a sweet cigar box nose

slight greenish tone on the taste before and after the decant.

sweet cedar wood with a very spicy full body.

30 second finish of smooth red berries and honeyed nuttiness.

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

On the second day the Croft was still nasty. Definitely corked. Harsh acetone.

I don't think the acetone comes from being corked, it has to do with the overall VA problem in 1985.

I really didn't have much of a note on this one, although I did note 'corked' and that I was very disappointed. We did return to it later, but I wasn't sure if it had improved in the glass or whether our tastes were getting less discriminating as the evening wore on.