For The Love Of Port

The '85 Grahams is the single best 80's port in my opinion. Looking across all brands and vintages in 80's, I can't put to a single vintage choice...

Overall I think that '83 wines are the ones IN GENERAL that I would prefer over 1985.

Of course, there are some exceptional wines from 1985 that I would prefer to specific 1983 wines.

But as an example of why I prefer 1983 in general to 1985 I can suggest the wine made by Dow or Warre. At a recent tasting, these 4 wines were shown next to each other. What astonished me was the fact that the 1985 wines had less colour and more tertiary characteristics than their sister wine from 1983. I would even go as far as to recommend that I would drink up both of these 1985 wines sooner rather than later. The two 1983's will have plenty of life left, in my opinion.

Interestingly I have had the Dow 1985 twice since this comparative tasting and my notes from those two later sips have been consistent with my comment above - the Dow 1985 (in my opinion) is now starting to slip down from the top of its drinking plateau.

Alex

i just had the 83 and 85 gould campbell a week apart. the 83 blows away the 85, which to me was a rather dull and lifeless. the only knock i had on the gc 83 was the alcohol/heat factor was still somewhat present even after 10 hours of decanting, but the fruit and tannins were spot on.

with the exception of grahams and fonseca for sure, i'm beginning to think the 83 vintage will surpass the 85 for longevity and quality. it's a shame too, i've got a bunch of 85s that i purchased several years ago based upon the reputation of the declaration.

i think the 83 cockburn, warres,dow and gould smoke their younger brothers from 85.

dave