1985 Croft

[Alex Bridgeman]

Deep rose red, 40% opaque. Sweet fruit on the nose, slightly jammy. A touch stewed on the palate but plenty of sweet fruit. Mid palate the alcohol shows with soft tannins in the background; lacking some balance and structure. Sweet and jammy on the aftertaste although it does come with a nice finish. It is good to try a Croft 1985 without it being full of VA. Needs more time to mature before coming to a final conclusion about this port. 86/100.

The review thread contains a list of all the ports on show at the 2014 Berry Brothers Port Walk.

[LGTrotter]

This was a port which generated a lot of approving noises from the assembled. I thought it rather too charming. It is like all those 85s which are cheery and blowsy and just a bit insipid. Soft, sweet and boneless.

[flash_uk]

20% opacity, rose, pinky red. Very delicate nose - cherry. Very light, delicate mouthfeel, full of cherry and liquorice. Gentle acidity and tannin and a nice finish. Something quite fragile about this port. Might explain why others note that it can be challenging to find a good bottle.

[AW77]

smells of liquorice, light body without being unpleasant, in the mouth some liquorice and pepper. really good.
I really liked this one and thought that it offered quite a good price-quality ratio. The F85 for me was only a little bit better, but it was almost double the price.
I must admit that I like liquorice notes. For me this is a sign that the port is neither still young nor already old/mature. In general I like this "betweenness" in my wines.

[idj123]

Liked this Port and in other circumstances it might have the source of more top-ups. Very clean gentle fruit but lacking the broodiness of the T85 and the explosiveness of the F85 (both of which I sampled prior to this).