Thomas V wrote:I guess I need to get my hands on some G85 and some more F85. Lost a bit of interest in G85 after a bad bottle (First crack at it), but I for sure want to try it again. What would be a good price for these?
It's hard for me to say since all I really know are the prices in the US. Prices on both of those have gone up here a little bit over time. I used to be able to get them reliably for $80/bottle (and often lower), but now $85-$95 seems to be normal. $100 isn't at all uncommon as an asking price, but I at least wouldn't pay that yet.
Never tasted the Dow's 1980 before and haven't heard much talk about it really. Sounds interesting and if it is better than the 85' Dow's which I have had a couple of times it must be very good.
It's somewhat rare and also somewhat famous in Port circles. You can probably blame Roy for that.
He's often the first to identify an underrated Port (like 1985 Fonseca - no, really, it was underrated before Roy started proclaiming its virtues). It is one of the darkest, least mature Ports from the 1980s. I haven't had it recently, but the last time (probably 4-5 years ago, I think) it was so backwards that I fixed in my head not to touch one again until they're 40 years old. Only 4 more years to wait!
In case you haven't already seen this, the 1983 Cockburn is a fabulous Port... when it isn't corked, which sadly is all too often. Some people report as high as 75-80% corked bottles. I've been extremely lucky in that all 3 of the bottles I can remember tasting have been clean. (And verified as clean by others, seeing as I can't smell or taste TCA.
) So if you want to try a bottle, do so with the expectation that it may very well be bad. Certainly don't pay full price for a bottle - whereas $60-$80 would otherwise be normal for a VP of that era, I wouldn't recommend spending more than $40 and really it should be less. Either that or get the store to guarantee the bottle against TCA (ha!).