1985 Graham Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

Decanted 8 hours and taken to dinner at the home of one of my wife's coworkers.

1985 Graham Vintage Port

Color: Deep ruby to garnet. Not quite opaque in bright light. Lots of gooey sediment in the bottle.

Nose: Stone fruits and bramble berries for the most part. Some plum along with blackberries and black currants. I get an impression of underlying change, in the sense that it seems like I can smell fermenting grapes. It's a little bit lodge-like, but not quite.

Palate: Darker and more brooding than past experience with this Port. Plums and prunes, ripe blackberries, and very rich and dark grapes. Good tannins and good acidity, though the tannins seem to be starting to fade.

Finish: Warm and comforting. Some tannins initially, but then mostly an echo of the palate. Nice and long and even includes some tart applies as it fades out.

Score: 93 points. This bottle seems to have taken a step backward relative to past experience, but also seems to indicate a need for further aging. Most of my experience with the G85 is that it is fabulous and very approachable right now... this bottle backs off a bit from that and says "give me some more time." My gut says 5-10 years to re-settle, but that assumes that it's already integrating and not still thrashing about trying to find itself. Regardless, an excellent Port to drink today and likely an outstanding Port again in a few years.

[Paul Fountain]

Nice note there Glenn
We had a really good example of this on the harvest tour last year in a lineup of Grahams and Malvedos bottlings and for me it was head and sholders above the others (Grahams 83, 94 97 and Malvedos 79, 82,01, 04, 08 and 09). It was certainly dark and brooding which was quite a contrast to the 83.