For The Love Of Port

1985 Fonseca Port – wow! Sweet nose in this still very dark (almost opaque) Port and some mint and ripe plum as well as some spice. Pretty smooth and well balanced in the mouth, but I think it is still some time away from ideal drinking plateau and needs some time. Wish I had some in my cellar!

Agreed. Great wine. If I was going to pick one wine that is still too you to drink, but will be a legendary wine with more time (like 20-30 years), this would be it!

The best Fonseca since 1970 IMO.

Moses Botbol wrote:The best Fonseca since 1970 IMO.

+1 Love this VP, it has so much life left in it. Will be a legendary one with time.

David Spriggs wrote:Agreed. Great wine. If I was going to pick one wine that is still too you to drink, but will be a legendary wine with more time (like 20-30 years), this would be it!

Agreed. In 20-30 years you'll be laughing at tastings (in-between pulls on your oxygen mask ) about how you picked up a couple cases of this at a "mere" $80/bottle back in 2014.

Arguably the best Port of the 1980s. Really only the 1987 Vargellas, 1985 Graham, and 1980 Dow give it any competition, and of those 3 only the 1987 Vargellas is serious competition.

(And that's coming from me... I like the Graham better at this time but recognize/suspect that the Fonseca has more long-term potential.)

Glenn E. wrote:

David Spriggs wrote:Agreed. Great wine. If I was going to pick one wine that is still too you to drink, but will be a legendary wine with more time (like 20-30 years), this would be it!

Agreed. In 20-30 years you'll be laughing at tastings (in-between pulls on your oxygen mask ) about how you picked up a couple cases of this at a "mere" $80/bottle back in 2014.

Arguably the best Port of the 1980s. Really only the 1987 Vargellas, 1985 Graham, and 1980 Dow give it any competition, and of those 3 only the 1987 Vargellas is serious competition.

(And that's coming from me... I like the Graham better at this time but recognize/suspect that the Fonseca has more long-term potential.)

You left out the '83 Ramos Pinto :-P


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Bradley Bogdan wrote:You left out the '83 Ramos Pinto :-P

As much as I like the 1983 Ramos Pinto, it's not in the same league.

I'd rate it amongst the top handful of 1983s, though, possibly behind only the Graham. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but there may be another one or two. The RP is really top notch for the vintage, and really doesn't get the attention it deserves in my opinion.

Glenn E. wrote:

Bradley Bogdan wrote:You left out the '83 Ramos Pinto :-P

As much as I like the 1983 Ramos Pinto, it's not in the same league.

I'd rate it amongst the top handful of 1983s, though, possibly behind only the Graham. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but there may be another one or two. The RP is really top notch for the vintage, and really doesn't get the attention it deserves in my opinion.

You know what this calls for, a "Best of the '80s" tasting to decide this head to head .


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1980 Graham's
1980 Gould Campbell
1985 Smith Woodhouse
1985 Niepoort

(and some would add 1985 Dow)

Those are all pretty good.

Wasn't there already a "Best of the '80s" FTLOP Vintage Port Retrospective at the Holiday Inn Issaquah on 1/29/2011??

Was there? Before my time if it was 2011. Perhaps a theme for 2016 then, due to a lack of logical 10 year increment retrospectives. Or, if they showed well enough, sooner .


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Well, I don't have any 1966 to speak of, so that works for me.

David Spriggs wrote:1980 Graham's
1980 Gould Campbell
1985 Smith Woodhouse
1985 Niepoort

(and some would add 1985 Dow)

Those are all pretty good.

Absolutely. All excellent Ports. No question.

Not in the same league as the 1985 Fonseca, 1987 Vargellas, and 1985 Graham.

David Spriggs wrote:Wasn't there already a "Best of the '80s" FTLOP Vintage Port Retrospective at the Holiday Inn Issaquah on 1/29/2011??

I don't remember the result off the top of my head (though I'm going to go dig it up), but regardless of the result from that one tasting if I'm buying Port from the 1980s the ones I'm looking for first are F85, TV87, and G85. I'll certainly get a few others for variety, but I'm pretty confident that those 3 are going to consistently show well tasting after tasting and that they have long, glorious lives ahead of them.

Edit: oh yeah, now I remember. That tasting was done blind. I mis-identified the G85 and was disappointed because it was only 3rd best by my notes. I correctly identified the F85 and had it 2nd. Then I had some mystery Port in 1st and couldn't figure out what it was. Turns out the mystery Port was the actual G85. Roy just shook his head that I'd picked the G85 as WOTN even though I thought I'd identified it as a different Port.

I'll take the SW '83 and G '83 over their '85 equivalents, based on the bottles I've had.

V good but, agreeing w others, would def hold off on opening one for a long time.
No fat left but not complex like it shows it will one day be.
Really no point opening one now, true infanticide at almost 30 yrs of age.

Glenn wrote:

Arguably the best Port of the 1980s. Really only the 1987 Vargellas, 1985 Graham, and 1980 Dow give it any competition, and of those 3 only the 1987 Vargellas is serious competition.

(And that's coming from me... I like the Graham better at this time but recognize/suspect that the Fonseca has more long-term potential.)

Yep, I wrote an article on this very topic a year or two ago: the top 2 VP's of the 1980's: 1985 Fonseca & 1987 Vargellas.