1985 Taylor Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

From day 1 of the 1985 horizontal, 24-25 Jan 2015, Holiday Inn Issaquah. All Ports were tasted blind. Unless otherwise noted, Ports were decanted for ~4 hours the morning of the tasting. The ones that I decanted received ~8 hours of decant overnight and were then stoppered for another ~6 hours until the tasting.

1985 Taylor Vintage Port
This is one of the bottles that I decanted on Friday night.

Color: Dark garnet. Not quite opaque, but trying.

Nose: Vague cinnamon, gentle fruits.

Palate: Mellow, fruited berry chocolate bar, decent tannins, good acidity. Nice tart note.

Score: 92 points. I was surprised to hear this was the Taylor when it was revealed, but ultimately (after both days) found it landed right where I might have predicted it would if I'd been asked before the tasting started. It just stood out on day 1, which I wasn't expecting. But that was more due to the random assortment of other Ports on Day 1 than to the Taylor itself.