1985 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port

[Frederick Blais]

Smith Woodhouse 1985 : I like this wine for 2 things, first it was good, ... very good! Second... this wine if proving that I'm still learning and needs to train my palate to learn even more!

After 3 hours in the decanter and 15 minutes in the glass, the burning alcool and volatile flavours completly disapeared and never came back. This left in my glass and the decanter a extremely good nectar. Ruby color, translucide, no trace or tawny edge, the nose is expressive with flavours of field berries, candied fruit, cinamon and candied figs. On the palate, the entry is smooth, delivery a good dose of sweetness, folowed by flavours similar to the nose, acidity and tannins are struggling for a few seconds to finally achieve a balance, which tells me that this wine is not yet to its peak. The finish is lingering displaying mainly spicy, candied figs and licorice flavours. Lovely wine with a few years ahead still to give its full potential 17.5/20

I'm saying I'm still learning because 6 years ago when I first tasted this wine, I thought it was very bad with no chance of getting better. The alcool, the volatile acidity that was present was simply so displeasing that I thought this wine had no future. Bad bottle, different batch? Who knows but now everything is integrated and further more, its showing sign that it can still improve a little.