1985 Dow

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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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

1985 Dow's Vintage Port

Post by RonnieRoots »

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.
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
Posts: 4172
Joined: 22:27 Wed 09 Jul 2008
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: 1985 Dow's Vintage Port

Post by Glenn E. »

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?
Glenn Elliott
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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

Re: 1985 Dow's Vintage Port

Post by RonnieRoots »

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.
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