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One of six in a 1985 Horizontal enjoyed by Simon Lisle, Conky and myself at this offline in Craster, Northumberland on 19 Jan 2008.

Derek
Nice dark colour but no longer opaque. Strange boiled sweet smell - cola cubes? (later identified as VA) - a nice medium weight, sweet, chocolate with a little heat and a slightly harsh finish.

Simon
Sophisticated, medium length, sweet, minty (all round)

Conky
What is that smell? - some sort of peel?

I found this one very far developed for an 85. Do you guys agree?

Axel

Certainly when compared to the Fonseca, Dow and Martinez. However, the bottle we had was suffering from something bad, which I think was VA, so perhaps not a good bottle on which to condem it.

Derek

I'm not so sure you had a bad bottle. I opened a bottle today because I had read conflicting notes on this wine, so I thought I better try the one I have. This bottle looked great, so I think storage conditions were ok.

Upon initial decanting, the color was very light red, with very little nose. The flavor was muted cherries and the alcohol was hot.

After 3 hours, there was only a little change. The color was the same. The alcohol had died down a bit, but there was some definite VA. The flavor was still cherries, but tart now.

After another couple of hours, the fruit was getting a tad better but nothing makes me think it's going to get much better. The sweetness is very muted, reminding me of a port that's at least 50 years old, or older. The VA is still there.

Overall, I have to conclude that this isn't a very good port. However, I did discover by accident that it goes well with spaghetti with marinara sauce, and pizza rolls.

All the best,
John

Yet another victim of the mysterious '85 VA disease...

RonnieRoots wrote:Yet another victim of the mysterious '85 VA disease...

I know I've heard this was happening, but this is the first time I've run into it. I haven't experienced it in any bottles of Fonseca, Dow, or Warre's.