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1985 Offley Boa Vista
Not as good a bottle as drunk earlier in the year. Still deeply coloured but very closed on the nose. Sweet and balanced in the mouth, but little of the complexity that was experienced before. The length was reasonable. Overall, I was disappointed by this wine having had such a good experience 9 months ago with the same port in the same restaurant. This just proves the old adage that there are no great wines, only great bottles. Interesting to note, however, that the previous TN was taken after 36 hours in the decanter but this bottle was only decanted for 4 hours - could this have made such a dramatic difference? On this showing I would rate this bottle as 2-2 on Tom's scale or 86/100.

Ouch 2-2

I got this particular Port 3 times and one was very good as the other 2 were far from being similar. Could there be a big difference between bottles with this Port?

Fred,

2-2 does not make it a bad port, only a port which I place as one of the 25 weakest that I will drink this year. Its also close to being a 3-3 but I had to make a decision and so edged down - perhaps slightly harshly.

However, I also wonder if the relatively short decanting time meant that this port was not able to show at its best.

I guess that the best summary that I can give is that if I look at this experience and my previous experience in January, I would not be put off buying and drinking this wine. While I was slightly disappointed by last night's experience, I would be surprised if that was a typical bottle.

Alex

A Desmond!!!