Splendid evening - thanks Jdaw for marshaling - entertainment not found anywhere else - and surely not the streets of Indranagar Stage II
Was fabulous to meet new young port enthusiasts - I hope the first of many similar gatherings on either side of the pond.
In terms of global vintages for great wine 1985 deserves serious consideration. Fabulous in France, excellent in California, very good in Germany and Australia, and with at least Graham and Fonseca, enough port from the same class to complete any dinning/dabbing experience. 1985 also produced some excellent people
I have never been especially high on the remaining cast of the 1985 declaration on an absolute basis, but as a relatively cheap and reliable mature vintage, it seemed like the much needed safe harbor for drinking between 1970 and >1994
This evening did little to change my overall view, but the failure rate we observed was quite high and unusual. In all my years, I don't recall something like it. I asked each taster which wines he thought were flawed. I don't believe any two people gave the same answer...
Rupert
Harvey
Tony
MZ - Bacterial
Noval - Strange
Taylor - Flat
Axel
Calem - 2nd form
Taylor
Other Chris
No flaws (::pssst:: Churchill!)
Tom
Calem
Taylor
Graham
Noval
"possibly" MZ
"general lack of attention"
Flash
everything and nothing
Charles
MZ
Calem
Jdaw
Taylor - corked
Mz - Bacterial
Noval - VA
Ian
Noval - all over the shop
Gonzalez - murky / weird
Simon
Gonzalez - can't believe that's proper port
Taylor - i was expecting more
Fonseca - not as nice as i've had before
Chris
Mg - like smelling cotton candy from tim burton's carnival. curious, but not correct
Mz - corked
Delaforce - DNPIM. smelled worse than the Mz and I had exhausted my tolerance. I traded my glass to Axel for a bmw
Noval - I have had maybe 8 noval 1985s, and i'd say 6 or so have been of this manner. Very thin, cloudy - like vitamin water without the vitamins. At this point don't know if it is a flaw or just what the wine is. If this IS the wine - never buy it.
Graham - corked. not stanky corked, but just completely stripped of depth of flavor and well, flavor. A pity, as it has recently been my wine of the vintage.
Fonseca won my night (aside from the 1970 Offley we bought off the list!), but with an 88 pts, it is the lowest I have yet scored this wine, if memory serves. In my head, this should be in the low-mid 90s with upside at this stage. YMMV.
The following night, BBR were pouring Dow and Graham 1985 and both bottles showed much different (in my view, better) than ours. In fact, they would have come in #1 and #2 in my voting had they been included.
So, this is a frustration but it was still tremendous fun and I look forward to knocking on the 85s on the 17th of this month on the other side of the atlantic
woo woo