For The Love Of Port

Decant: 36 hours - Deep mahogany colour - deep centre and strongly coloured rim with a brown hint of maturity (and certainly darker than when we were drinking the bottle with only 3 hours of decanter time). Sweet smell of warm cinnamon and cloves, stewed raisins and roast meat - almost of mulled wine - assails my nose from arms length as I type this note up. Absolutely lovely. A quick swirl also reveals a nice earthy tone. Into the mouth and the wine is thick and sweet. Covers the tongue with a fine caress, Christmas cake but with a streak of acidity. The flavours build up and change through at least 3 variations until you just have to swallow. And when you do the combination of warmth and aftertaste is amazing and goes on for a very long time, changing constantly. This is an astonishing wine. Bought for $79 in a restaurant in New York this was an absolute bargain and is both amazing good value and one of the best '85s I have ever had. If you come across one of these then buy it. Quite stunning. On Tom's scale I would put this at the bottom of the upper quartile of wines I expect to drink this year, but probably somewhere close to its best in its drinking profile, so I rate this at 8-8. 93 points