For The Love Of Port

After experiencing this wine at the 1985 vertical I became concerned (I thought that it lacked acidity, but others thought it was fine). I have a couple of cases of 1985 Graham's and if mine were as mature as the one at that tasting, then I needed to start drinking them. So from one of my unopened cases I grabbed one bottle. On opening the corked looked very solid. No leakage at all. Upon decanting it became clear that this was not in the same state as the previous wine. Very dark black color. Almost as dark as a 1985 Fonseca. Beautiful earthy, nose of prunes and blackberry. On the palace the wine is powerful and youthful. This is almost all black fruit... much more so than I recall from previous tastings. The alcohol is totally in check and the very long finish still has some unresolved tannins. This was very fun and exciting to drink. There is great energy in this wine. This was hard to stop drinking. Even the non-Port drinker in the group went back for thirds. An outstanding Port!! 95 points.

Along with the Fonseca this is my other favorite of the vintage.

I've heard a few stories now about prematurely mature G85s and even F85s. So far I've been pretty lucky (I didn't think the one in January was as mature as others did), but it's good to hear that your supply is still youthful!

Still drinking it a week later and it continues to drink *very* well.

Can't say I've really heard any reliable accounts of this Port being fully mature.

I have, but I suspect poor shipping or storage. It is 30 years old after all.

I do know that there were '85 Graham's VP in green bottles floating around. Saw some of them in Edmonton. I was offered a couple of bottles in exchange for '77 Musar but my port buddy advised me against it. He said that the green bottle Graham's were decidedly inferior.

David, do you remember what colour the Graham's bottle was in the '85 vertical?

Mahmoud.

The one in the 1985 horizontal was a dark colored bottle and looks identical to mine.

There are a variety of ports for a time after the producers started bottling where they had a hard time getting enough of the same bottles and thus as you've seen had to use different ones.


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David Spriggs wrote:The one in the 1985 horizontal was a dark colored bottle and looks identical to mine.

All of mine (~2 cases) are dark bottles, as are my 2 remaining magnums.