1985 horizontal, Seattle, Jan 24-25 2015

[Bradley Bogdan]

A fabulous weekend, thank you for all involved in the planning and procurement /donation of bottles, as well as to everyone who attended. A special thank you to Glenn who took on the lions share of the work and sourcing of bottles, and to the folks who donated bottles despite not being able to attend.

Glenn's summary is pretty spot on with my thoughts as well. The only thing I'd add is the roughly 20% incidence of cork taint, unfortunately this tasting did nothing to dispel the poor reputation for the closures of the decade.


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[Glenn E.]

A concise summary of the 1985 Vintage: some great Port, some very good port, but mostly average Port.

Fonseca and Graham stood out as usual, though we needed a second bottle of Fonseca on day 2 in order to really get a proper showing. The Day 1 Fonseca and Day 2 Graham were both superb, but just not as great as they normally are. But even so, they were head and shoulders above everything else.

Except for the Warre, which was a pleasant surprise on Day 2. I don't normally think of Warre as a big, opulent Port but that's exactly what this bottle was. It was nearly as dark as the Day 2 Fonseca and was darker than the Graham. Very nice showing, but in my book atypical.

Dow, Gould Campbell, and Smith Woodhouse were all disappointing. The Dow was 3-4 points lower than usual for me, while the GC and SW were 4-5 points low. I couldn't detect any obvious flaws... they just didn't show well.

On the plus side, Borges & Irmao, Krohn, and Ramos Pinto all showed very nicely and performed beyond my expectations. I didn't really expect any of them to be excellent, but all three were (90-93 rating on my scale). These would be fine additions to anyone's cellar if you can find them. The Churchill and Taylor also hit this level, but that's what I expected from them given past experience. 91-92 points is a great place to be.

Off the top of my head nothing else stands out. Everything else fell into some range between "good" and "pretty good" but just didn't sing. Many of them are fine Ports that would serve well as daily drinkers, but I'm probably not going to go looking to stock up on any of them. There's just too much really good Port out there available for similar prices.

[Andy Velebil]

Some wonderful, some good, and some bad. Regardless, I had a great time. Enjoyed seeing everyone, laughing at and with each other, and just having a good time all around. Many thanks to Glenn and Roy (and for the pizza and Zin too), and everyone else, for all their hard work making this happen. Can't wait to see everyone again at our next gathering....

[David Spriggs]

Thanks Glenn for organizing this. I had a great time! It was fun to see everyone. Yes, the tasting was uneven, but there were some winners for sure. The Warre's was a big surprise. Are we sure that we didn't get Warre's and Gould Campbell mixed up? (just kidding).

[Edgar B.]

All I can say is "what they said". What a wonderful weekend and thank you for the warm welcoming of Chef Steve McNabb into the arcane world of port and port lovers.

I would only add that the Croft seems to have been overlooked as I found it to be a delicious port of refined balance and complexity showing citrus , crushed rose petals and baking spice. I wish I had some in my cellar!

Thank you to everyone for putting this tasting together!

[David Spriggs]

I would only add that the Croft seems to have been overlooked

Yes, I forgot about that. Another great showing for Croft!

[Roy Hersh]

And also Kopke!

[David Spriggs]

Agreed. Kopke was one of my favorites. I kept some in my glass for later and it had actually improved by the end of tasting.

[Glenn E.]

Oh yeah, how could I forget the Kopke? Another surprise showing for the brand that exceeded mist people's expectations.

Croft showed about where I expected. An excellent Port.