ThePortForum.com

Tasted during a wonderful tasting, hosted and prepared by Gustavo, in the Graham's lodge (26/11/2009)

The first port of the tasting to show a lovely ruby colour. The nose is odd, chemical and dusty. To taste it is rather simple, and it has far less structure than you'd expect from the colour. Again a bit chemical, but also some pretty fruit: some cherries and some red berries. The flavours don't come together: a bit of bitter here, some acidity there, they are all loose components.

I had never tasted the Dow 1985 before, but this tasting confirmed my belief that the ports from this vintage are really quite weak. Except for the Fonseca of course, but that goes without saying.

Interesting... I've always thought that the 1985 Dow was one of the better balanced Ports of the vintage. It is neither the Fonseca nor the Graham, but it has always been nicely balanced and well integrated.

So which is it, have I been lucky or were you unlucky with this bottle?

One fellow taster drank this port several times before and found it quite similar to earlier bottles, therefore I thought this to be a proper example. As I said, I haven't had it before, so I wouldn't know. But I haven't been impressed by many of the 85's, and this fits in the picture as far as I'm concerned.