For The Love Of Port

Which Ports from the 80's do you prefer? To drink now or in the nearby future .

Dow's and Graham's.

Guilherme

1985 Fonseca and Graham are both very nice.

The advice above is very good. I will also add that I've had great bottles of 1985 Smith Woodhouse. 1987 Taylor "Quinta de Vargellas" is stupendous, but difficult to find. All the Symington's wine are very good during this time (they still are!). 1985 Burmester is one of my favorites.

I am glad to see David included the 1987 Taylor's Vargellas. I would also add the 1980 Dow, Graham, Ferreira, Warre and Gould Campbell too. Also the Graham 1983 and occasional bottle of Cockburn's from that same vintage ... if you get lucky enough to find one that is not corked.

1987 Graham's Malvedos is very nice, so is the 1987 Niepoort if you can find it. Actually 1987 has some really good stuff from it. How can you not like the 1985 Fonseca and Dow's.

dow's 80 VP (in roy's top 12 vp)

guilherme wrote:Dow's and Graham's.

Guilherme

Which ones? Vintages...??

Carlos Rodriguez wrote:

guilherme wrote:Dow's and Graham's.

Guilherme

Which ones? Vintages...??

For me - 1985, 1980, and 1983 Dow - in that order. Lately I am liking 1985 Dow, but I have a lot of 1983.
Grahams - 1985 is one of the best Ports from the decade of the 80's. I prefer the same vintages in the same order - 1985, 1980, and then 1983 with a strong preference for 1985.

I can also recommend the 1986 Graham's Malvedos.

Honestly any vintage of Dow's or Graham's would be a good choice. If the cost is close, then I would certainly go for the 1985 Graham's.

From David's short list, he makes a great choice, but I'd probably go with the 1980 Dow. He's as right as I am though.

I'm also with David. Of the 1985s I've had, Burmester and Smith Woodhouse were my favorites. Outside of 1985 I've not tasted enough to comment, yet

David Spriggs wrote:Dow's and Graham's.

Honestly any vintage of Dow's or Graham's would be a good choice. If the cost is close, then I would certainly go for the 1985 Graham's.

David, thanks for the apreciation about the cost. This makes it more interesting. In the choice of a Dow's or Graham's of the 90's, if the price was close, would you also go for the Graham's?

Carlos Rodriguez wrote:

David Spriggs wrote:Dow's and Graham's.

Honestly any vintage of Dow's or Graham's would be a good choice. If the cost is close, then I would certainly go for the 1985 Graham's.

David, thanks for the apreciation about the cost. This makes it more interesting. In the choice of a Dow's or Graham's of the 90's, if the price was close, would you also go for the Graham's?

I would stay away from the '85 Dow unless you plan on 10+ years of cellaring.

I would pick Grahams over Dow for any vintage or decade. Dow is a great port, but Grahams is always a home run.

Moses Botbol wrote: I would pick Grahams over Dow for any vintage or decade. Dow is a great port, but Grahams is always a home run.

Thank you, Moses. I really apreciate your advice. I've some 80's Graham's and I hope I'll have some Dow's too, if I can. Then I'll tell you if I agree with you. At the moment I may open a Gramham's 1983 tonigth to see how is it. I've never taste an 80's Graham's vintage before.

Carlos Rodriguez wrote:

Moses Botbol wrote: I would pick Grahams over Dow for any vintage or decade. Dow is a great port, but Grahams is always a home run.

Thank you, Moses. I really apreciate your advice. I've some 80's Graham's and I hope I'll have some Dow's too, if I can. Then I'll tell you if I agree with you. At the moment I may open a Gramham's 1983 tonigth to see how is it. I've never taste an 80's Graham's vintage before.

Not to flip flop, but the '80 Dow may be a little better than '80 Graham, but nothing extreme.

That's what happens when one uses generalizations, the exceptions start showing up :wall:

the 1983 Graham's is a nice bottle, then you have the 1985 and you see the differences that make the '85 that much better.

Overall, I've been a bit disappointed with the top 'names' in the 80's. Just haven't reached the 'heights' I would have expected.
In contrast, it seemed to be a good time for some lesser houses.
All of Ramos Pinto, Gould Campbell, Offley Forrester and Smith Woodhouse outperformed (relatively) in the earlier 80's (80, 82, 83, 85), although I think most of those may now be past their peak (haven't tried them recently except for Gould Campbell).
Certainly on a quality/price ratio I think the lesser houses won easily.

In 82,83, 85 I found a relative lack of structure in the 'premium' houses - good fruit up front, but lacked a backbone. Overall I prefered 1980 (more tannins) but recently had an 80 Graham, which similarly lacked the 'structure' although very pretty fruit.
The relatively few 87's I've had were also 'pleasant' - and actually seemed to have better structure. But I also found excessive alcohol in these (more accurately the alcohol was noticeable, rather than integrated).

Overall, I think Dow was probably the 'best' I had - but Graham regularly disappointed me - not a 'bad' port - just not up to the Graham 'reputation'.
And Fonseca (my favourite house) certainly hit a bad patch in the 80's - particularly the 83 which was the worst Fonseca I've tasted.

I'm probably repeating many votes above but for me it would have to be Dow 1980, Fonseca and Graham's 1985 and Vargellas 1987. In my experience all of these stand head and shoulders above the competition in their respective vintages. I haven't drunk enough 1983 to include one from that vintage but I am sure someone would have thrust a glass of something in front of me if it could compete with the four mentioned above?

Derek

Moses wrote:

I would pick Grahams over Dow for any vintage or decade. Dow is a great port, but Grahams is always a home run.

We can agree to disagree on this one. I DEFINITELY prefer the 1977 Dow to the Graham, ditto 1980 and 1991. The 1966 is very close and really is a bottle by bottle decision. I've had some amazing ones of each.

Roy Hersh wrote:Moses wrote:

I would pick Grahams over Dow for any vintage or decade. Dow is a great port, but Grahams is always a home run.

We can agree to disagree on this one. I DEFINITELY prefer the 1977 Dow to the Graham, ditto 1980 and 1991. The 1966 is very close and really is a bottle by bottle decision. I've had some amazing ones of each.

I'll give you the '77 and '80. I can't say with '91 as I am not sure I had have either house in that vintage. As I posted earlier, there's going to be exceptions, and '80 is the one I pointed out.

Currently, I am gun shy on Dow '77; have had too many off bottles recently to put that vintage on a mantle. 5-10 years ago, I would've swore up and down the Dow 77 is one of the best.

Would agree with you on the '66; either can be good.

Who do you like better on the big vintages, like '55, '63, and '70?

I think it's too early to say who'll win '85, as they house styles are quite pronounced for either brand.