1985 Fonseca Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

From day 1 of the 1985 horizontal, 24-25 Jan 2015, Holiday Inn Issaquah. All Ports were tasted blind. Unless otherwise noted, Ports were decanted for ~4 hours the morning of the tasting. The ones that I decanted received ~8 hours of decant overnight and were then stoppered for another ~6 hours until the tasting.

1985 Fonseca Vintage Port (Day 1)
This is one of the bottles that I decanted on Friday night.

Color: Dark purple, opaque in the center. Not bricking, but also not fading through clear pink. So possibly just beginning to show some signs of age?

Nose: A bit reticent. Tough to get much out of the glass, but smells faintly like what a 1985 VP should smell like. Purple berries; loganberry and mulberry.

Palate: Rich, sweet, fruity, tannic, and complex. Finally a quality 1985! Some prune, possibly some plum. What a top-tier 1985 should be like.

Score: 94 points. I guessed this was the Fonseca despite having already guessed that the Ramos Pinto was the Fonseca. (I guess as I go, but once we got to this Port it was clear that my earlier guess was wrong.) Even so, something felt not quite right about this bottle. It was clearly an outstanding Port, but it just wasn't singing. The muted nose is just one example. I wavered between 93 and 94 points before finally settling on 94, but even now that still feels like it might have been a bit generous.

[Moses Botbol]

Saw a local store that has case of well stored '85 Fonseca for around $120 a bottle... Also had case of '85 Dow at a similar price...

Seems like the best of this vintage is starting to creep up in price!