1985 Graham

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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SushiNorth
Martinez 1985
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1985 Graham

Post by SushiNorth »

Tasted at a vertical of drinkable Graham's Vintage Ports from the past 50 years, held on the ever auspicious Friday the Thirteenth (February 2009) and hosted graciously by jfacciol.
Links: Review; 1960; 1963; 1966; 1970; 1977; 1980; 1983; 1985; 1991; 1994; Planning
JoshDrinksPort
Image Port wine should perhaps be added -- A Trollope
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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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Re: 1985 Graham

Post by jdaw1 »

Graham’s 1985: decanted 14:40. Dark red, no brown, no blue, 50% translucency. At D+0 some astringency in the nose, but also sweet cranberry. To taste likewise, with mouthfilling sweetness and nice length. Tannins too strong: will be fixed by the passage of time. Bodes well.
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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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Re: 1985 Graham

Post by jdaw1 »

Graham’s 1985: I might have thought it boded well, but this bright-red port had a foul and ’orrible bottle stink. Attempting to ignore the stink I found a taste that I could only describe as ‟heat; nice weight”. The stink diminished with time, but not enough.

Bizarrely, Anthony liked this.
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
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Re: 1985 Graham

Post by RonnieRoots »

What kind of stink was it? I've never tasted this port, but LadyR has, and found hints of VA.
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g-man
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
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Re: 1985 Graham

Post by g-man »

Heavy stink of evaporated milk that turns a little nail polishy. (I definitely smell the VA here)

The taste of VA is overwhelming, noticeable tannins and a celery bitterish finish.

Later on in the night, this started picking up body and flavor. Still stunk, but some stewed plums backed with a full bodied spirit started appearing.

Withheld rating.
Disclosure: Distributor of Quevedo wines and Quinta do Gomariz
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SushiNorth
Martinez 1985
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Joined: 07:45 Mon 18 Feb 2008
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Re: 1985 Graham

Post by SushiNorth »

+5 Dark semi-clear ruby. My first whiff of this was a big screaming Garbage Bin, with some raisins at the bottom. Sure enough, in the mouth there's a baked, stewed raisins flavor. It's hot at the start, but lightens up rapidly. The tail is light in flavor but very very hot.

It improved a bit over the course of the night, the garbage bin faded and the raisins mellowed out, but I'm only giving this an 87. Maybe a different bottle would have been better.
JoshDrinksPort
Image Port wine should perhaps be added -- A Trollope
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