1985 Warre

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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TLW
Quinta do Noval LBV
Posts: 203
Joined: 07:51 Sat 01 Dec 2012

1985 Warre

Post by TLW »

At a country house hotel outside Winchester, apparently decanted the day before.

Still about 80% opaque. Very spirity on the nose, stewed prunes, hint of orange, soft, young, not complex, drinkable enough, but ever so slightly disappointing. Whilst there will be no difficulty in drinking the few of them that I have, I will not be in a rush to fill my cellar with more.

The pity is that they had 1966 Taylor by the glass, but it seems that it had been decanted some long time before, so gave this a miss.
griff
Warre’s Traditional LBV
Posts: 347
Joined: 09:43 Thu 03 Jun 2010
Location: Sydney

Re: 1985 Warre

Post by griff »

TLW wrote:At a country house hotel outside Winchester, apparently decanted the day before.

Still about 80% opaque. Very spirity on the nose, stewed prunes, hint of orange, soft, young, not complex, drinkable enough, but ever so slightly disappointing. Whilst there will be no difficulty in drinking the few of them that I have, I will not be in a rush to fill my cellar with more.

The pity is that they had 1966 Taylor by the glass, but it seems that it had been decanted some long time before, so gave this a miss.
What a waste of a 66! Surely they could have given it away or imbibed before such a demise :crying:
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 1985 Warre

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

TLW wrote:At a country house hotel outside Winchester, apparently decanted the day before.
Please do say where. I am interested in visiting a hotel which has Taylor 1966 on offer by the glass - but I will phone ask them to decant a fresh bottle for my visit!
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
TLW
Quinta do Noval LBV
Posts: 203
Joined: 07:51 Sat 01 Dec 2012

Re: 1985 Warre

Post by TLW »

AHB wrote:
TLW wrote:At a country house hotel outside Winchester, apparently decanted the day before.
Please do say where. I am interested in visiting a hotel which has Taylor 1966 on offer by the glass - but I will phone ask them to decant a fresh bottle for my visit!
The Lainston House Hotel outside Winchester - very civilised place. They had the following ports by the glass:

1966 Taylor
1977 Taylor
1977 Warre (although did not see this one with the others)
1985 Warre

They also had 1945 Dow by the bottle.

The prices were really rather reasonable in the context of the typical markup for a good hotel restaurant - about twice and a bit. The issue is that the decanting appears to be patchy , and it appears that some of it is decanted once, and then back into the bottle, and filtered again before going into the glass, although the 85 Warre appears to have been properly done, so I chose this one the first night.

There appears to be a particular barman/sommelier that does the decanting, although I never ascertained who that might be. The rest of the staff had no idea when most of the port had been decanted. Thus, I took a plunge and tried the 1977 Taylor (long ago having given away the only case I had of it as a wedding present - and was never invited to share - what can I say, he was from Southhampton). It was disappointing - and thus no note - seeming to be past the best drink by date, but I drank it anyway; it had gone a bit flat, but was not yet unpleasant.
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