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My first experience of this port.

Decanted 4 Hrs
Decanted very easily and left very little sediment in the bottle. A beautiful dark red colour. Dark chocolate cherry truffle nose. Thick and chewy with lots of tannin from start to finish. A little Taylor's burn after a few seconds which quickly fades into a very long mouth-watering finish. Excellent.

What a shame I don't have anyone here to share it with

+30 Hours
Slightly spirity nose but still that chocolate smell. Even thicker mouthfeel than yesterday. Very smooth with lots of dark fruit. Enormous amount of tannin in the finish, which is long and warming.

I have seen reviews of this wine saying "not ready" - I entirely agree.

Score: 8-9

+53 Hours
Now completely opaque. Beautifully thick. Lots of fresh fruits and still tons of tannin. My cheeks are running through the very long and warming finish.

I really like this. For me, it isn't in the same league as the Fonseca or Graham's 85s but it's up there with the Dow in a respectable 3rd or 4th place.

Great port - and a nice way to toast this, my 2000th post on TPF

Derek

Derek,

The missus and I, when we married 5.5 years ago, had a wine list as a gift list, with the theory that we'd crack the bottles with those who bought them, as an incentive for them to buy us a nice bottle, and to stay good friends.

So far, we've had just one of the 68 bottles, a vintage Dom Perignon, but a bottle of Penfold 707 is lined up for the weekend (rather excited about that), and we also got a load of port, all Taylor 85.

I keep a close eye on tasting notes for it, and have had the occasional bottle with Julian at other events. Your opinion matches mine, that it's not ready yet, but a rather splendid quaff, nonetheless.

I've never left a bottle for as long as you did before finishing it. When would you say it peaked?


Gahndihhhhhh

I am torn between 4 hours and 2 days. It definately had a slump in the middle. I think it is worth a shot at 2 days if you have never left it that long.

Derek

I will bear that in mind, thanks.

Derek,

I just had the Taylors next to the Fonseca 85 last week. The Fonseca is much more open. Fruity and definitely the winner of the match. The Taylors however was almost as concentrated, but will it ever come close?

Ill drop my TNs within the next days.

Axel

... and I do have different labels of the bottles because the Fladgate Partnership labeled the later bottles freshly

Axel