For The Love Of Port

1980 is an odd vintage. There was a thread recently where Roy was asking whether 1977 was better drinking today than 1980 and this made me think of a slightly different question.

If a friend who was born in 1980 asked for your suggestions as to which firm's ports he should buy to celebrate his birthday each year over the next few years, which of the major (or even smaller) port shipping firms would you point him towards. In other words, which firm "won" the vintage.

To my mind, 1980 was a Symington vintage. To my taste the Dow is just monstrously young still; the Graham, Smith Woodhouse and Gould Campbell are drinking but really need more time; and it is only Warre and Quarles Harris from the Symington Family Estates that I would choose to open today and even those have many years ahead of them before they start to decline.

On the other hand, Taylor Fladgate produced a very odd Fonseca and an atypical and quite weak Taylor. The only Roeda I've tasted was a poor bottle and I've not seen any other TFP vintage ports from 1980.

Sogrape and Sogevinus produced perfectly respectable wines. I like the Ferreira, but it is a typical elegant and refined port that is now fully mature. I've never seen any other shippers.

So, in your opinion, who do you think "won" the 1980 vintage. If you were buying a port you had never tried before from the 1980 vintage, which of the firms' products would you tend to choose?

1980 was supposed to be one of those blockbuster vintages, but it was quickly eclipsed by 83 and 85 and never overtook 1977.
I have none left in my collection. What I remember is that your assessment of Ferreira is in line with mine. The Graham 1980 was the best of that vintage as I recall. but in the 1980's and 90's when I was accruing port, the 77, 83 and 85 vintages were better and good value then so I drank my few 1980's and did not aquire any more 1980's.

Dow 1980 is the stand-out of the vintage for me. It is still a baby and will take many years to mature.

Agree with Dow, the best I've had from the vintage. Also had a lovely Warres at one time.

I agree with your assessment. The 1980 Dow is a stunner (and very hard to find here in the US), while the other Symington products are also quite good (or so I've heard).

The Fonseca and Taylor are both... well, not stellar. Both seem uncharacteristic to me.

Easy: Dow. Even the other Symington ports are way behind and we'd better forget what TFP did that year.

Without a doubt, I'd say that Dow was the star of the 1980 vintage.

To drink now, I like 1980 Taylor, Ferriera, or Sandeman.

I've been touting the Dow 1980 on line for the past decade and a half and can only imagine how many I've converted over the years.

As Alex mentioned in the first post in this thread, the Warre's 1980 ... I had a magnum of the 1980 Warre pulled for our meeting this past weekend as one of the many possibilities from my cellar that Stewart, David and Andy could choose from. For some reason, we wound up going with all 750s and on the final night, the 1980 was passed over in lieu of a 1955 Ferreira. Fortunately, it turned out to be a very fine choice and complemented a pair of Fonseca's from 1966 and 1970, before a 40 year old Tawny by S. Leonardo put an end to our weekend consumption.

Roy Hersh wrote:I had a magnum of the 1980 Warre pulled for our meeting this past weekend as one of the many possibilities from my cellar that Stewart, David and Andy could choose from. ...

Rough those work meetings, but I guess somebody has to do it.

Very much a 'Curate's egg' is the 1980 vintage - also one where market value is perhaps more perfectly opposed to quality than in any other (Graham excepted, Dow recognised..)

..perhaps we should call it the 'Moet & Chandon' vintage..

Tom

It's all about the Dow's in 1980.

May've found a several cases of 1980 Warre sitting in the corner of a local distributor. Hopefully we can agree on a price!

The Dow 1980 is the best of the vintage although the 1980 Sandeman is very good, at least in magnum format!

Sean, I totally agree and another unheralded 1980 that always impresses me is the FERREIRA. Who the heck ever talks about that one from 1980?

Roy Hersh wrote:Sean, I totally agree and another unheralded 1980 that always impresses me is the FERREIRA. Who the heck ever talks about that one from 1980?

Those of us who have a case of it... Our 1980 Ferreira were the cases that were shipped and stored upright.

Al B. wrote:Symington vintage … Dow … Graham, Smith Woodhouse and Gould Campbell … Warre and Quarles Harris … a very odd Fonseca … quite weak Taylor. … Roeda … Sogrape and Sogevinus produced perfectly respectable wines. … Ferreira, …. I've never seen any other shippers.

Your list didn’t explicitly mention Offley Boa Vista, which you have tasted in my company, along with a Hutcheson 1980.

I have only been able to try Taylor (weak, a sleeper), Ferreira (sweet, elegant, feminine) and Gould Campbell (non stellar) from the 80 vintage. Hard for me to judge the entire slate as I have not tried many, but of those three, the Ferreira definitely was my favorite. Wish I could find more...

I've really gained an interest in the 1980 vintage. I've been drinking some Gould Campbell, which has been drinking great but will definitely live for a long time. I have a single bottle of Dow that I'm holding off on opening. I just picked up a few bottles of the Offley Boa Vista and opened one yesterday. You can see those tasting notes here. I'm glad to see a few other producers listed in this thread, as I want to acquire as many as I can. I'm thinking it's time for a 1980 horizontal in the future. I'll try to set one up later in the year and will post it on the Forum. If you're interested in coming to Chicago, keep an eye out for it.

John,

If you have enough critical mass in terms of vintages, I might make the trip out to Chicago.

I am in total agreement with you on the GC. Not sure what happened w/ Todd's bottle, but the 1980 Gould Campbell is a bright spot in the overall scheme of the 1980 vintage. Still so young, it is crazy and up there in the top handful from this vintage. I would still pull a 1980 Ferreira to drink today, but the Gould Campbell and of course Dow and Graham are right at the top tier of '80 VPs, imo.