1985 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

From day 2 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 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port
This is one of the bottles that I decanted on Saturday night.

Color: Dark garnet with a slightly orange tint to it.

Nose: Cheesecake, faint raisins, and some cake batter.

Palate: Dryish. Really good acidity. Cranberry fruit with a mocha finish. Some faint VA.

Score: 87 points. I'm at the point where an underperforming Nacional no longer surprises me - I expect it. Either Nacional is just completely not my style of Port or I've never had a truly good one, because it seems like I generally have them rated in the upper 80s score-wise.

[Moses Botbol]

Cake batter is something I find on all the 80's Nacional's vintages I have tried.