1985 Ferreira VP

[Bradley Bogdan]

Decanted 10 hours from bottle purchased from Edgar B. Cork 1/3 soaked but in otherwise excellent shape.

Fairly light/advanced color, appearing much like a 10y tawny, so still with a core of red but a healthy level of brown around the edges and not much opacity.

The nose is full of strawberries, pastry and flowers. The palate shows that the initial heat has settled and now reveals a fresh strawberry, slightly herbal and some light brown sugar. This very fresh, but still slightly grippy wine perfectly fits my mental image of what good Ferreira is, pretty and well balanced. This bottle definitely outshone the one I had a couple weeks ago as part of the '85 retrospective, I hope the rest of my bottles are as good as this one.

94 pts.

[Edgar B.]

Hey Brad,

Glad you liked the bottle from my sale. I think you and Roy grabbed most of those, so good for you!!

[Andy Velebil]

I grabbed a couple too. Nice VO


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[Roy Hersh]

Brad,

I opened one too early in the week. Shockingly, as it was spirity but warm, not hot and Tawny-like as you've mentioned, on day 3 this really morphed. The alc. and warmth had fully resolved and whereas I thought this would have fallen apart. it actually had improved dramatically. Try this with the next one you open too. It really paid off holding this one and I can't think of where that's been the case with 30 year old Vintage Ports. I'm not saying it never happens, but it is rare that I ever have a VP more than 48 hours, unless it is very young or a cask sample I'm evaluating.

[Bradley Bogdan]

I'll have to give it a try. As much as the color suggested more young tawny than VP, it definitely showed solidly ruby on the palate and was pretty delicious after the initial decant. I'm not sure how much better it could have gotten! I've got a few more from Edgar's stock to play with.


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[Roy Hersh]

Believe me, I was very surprised too and the bottle I opened with from Edgar's friend's stock as well. At the end of a full week this was still really delish.