1985 Croft

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14880
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

1985 Croft

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Provided by JDAW and decanted for 5½ hours. Mid-red colour, orange on the rim. Redcurrants and licorice on the nose, smelling to be mature and ready, some dustiness. Harsh on entry with some soft tannins showing in the mid-palate, along with a lot of fruit - raspberries in orange juice - and a nice acidic backbone. The aftertaste is slow to start and contains lots of strawberries, long and enjoyable. A decent port on its own but fades in the company in which it was served. 3/3 or 91/100. Drunk 8/2/08.

Edit by jdaw1 in July 2015, adding links to: TPF review thread; FTLoP commentary; FTLoP planning thread; placemats.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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SEAN C.
Cockburn’s Special Reserve
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Joined: 23:59 Sun 26 Aug 2007

Post by SEAN C. »

The 1985 Croft:

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TBird
Fonseca LBV
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Re: 1985 Croft vintage port

Post by TBird »

3:15pm, removed capsule to find crusty/moldy growth. extracted mushy cork in two whole parts. poured thru unbleached paper coffee filter into a riedel funnel into a reidel decanter. noticed a slight brown coloring but still retaining a firm brick red at it's core. immediately poured about 1 ounce in glass to test. decanting took 15 minutes, didn't expect it to take so long, eventually gave up on the coffee filter drip and went with a mesh thingy you stick directly into the neck of the bottle. turns out it was just as slow.
nose of stewed fruit but nothing stewed about it's first sip. raspberry kirschy with no detectable heat, this taste quite yummy. bright acid, well balanced, fruit driven. better than i anticipated. will check back in an hour.
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Axel P
Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
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Re: 1985 Croft vintage port

Post by Axel P »

Alex,

I had the same impression of this, tasted some years ago. Found it to be much more matured than most of the other 85s I have tasted so far.

Axel
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TBird
Fonseca LBV
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Re: 1985 Croft vintage port

Post by TBird »

1 hour later shows a nice mellowing and melding of fruit into a smokey tea profile. i should have had more when first opened, as i am really into fruit driven wines, but the hour change shows it still has that raspberry plus the smokiness. at this point, i think i like it better than you did, but maybe only by a point. which still doesn't make it a great buy for me. $60 and 88 points?

but, this is my first solo venture with vp (offlines, everyone else dotted the i's and crossed the t's, all i had to do was drink....) and i can tell you i certainly have the fever!
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 1985 Croft vintage port

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Don't get me wrong - I like this port and would happily drink it again. At $60, I think that's a fair price to pay for a mature 1985 vintage. It's a great way to get yourself hooked on vintage port!

Congratulations :D
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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