1985 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port

[Steven Kooij]

TN: Smith Woodhouse 1985 Vintage Port - I bought this bottle recently at a local store for an impromptu tasting at the Roots’. The store was kind enough to decant it for me: excellent quality cork (perhaps suggesting a lifetime spend standing up? If so, it did no harm in this case: it was very hard to extract the cork) and good fill level (into neck). It was tasted some 3 hours after double decanting, and I served it blind to Ronnie and Lady Roots.

Rather mature looking, quite light. Not very outspoken on the nose, with a slight but unmistakable aroma of VA – it was the first thing both Ronnie and Lady Roots commented on…dried figs, something lavender-like and burnt caramel.
A lightweight VP, but with good balance. Sweet for sure, but not too much. Dried fruits flavours dominate. Long, sweet finish with a burnt sugar bitterness to it. 85 points – drink up.

Yet another ’85 with VA…a shame. It is not so overpowering as to render this Port undrinkable – Ronnie and I finished the decanter during our game of poker without any problems, even though Lady Roots found the VA to be to much for her liking (and probably rated this VP much lower than I did). Fortunately for her, Ronnie had also opened a magnificent Taylor ’87 Qta. d. Vargellas (93 points) – delicious! That one, too, was empty at the end of the evening… 8)