1985 Smith Woodhouse 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 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port
This is one of the bottles that I decanted on Friday night.

Color: Medium red, some tawny characteristics. Almost like a light 10-yr old tawny.

Nose: Candle wax, oats. Some light fruit, but not a lot.

Palate: Relatively dry compared to the rest of the day. Not a lot of fruit or tannins. Decent acidity, but it's really not enough to save it. Drinkable, but not interesting.

Score: 84 points. This was my biggest disappointment on day 1, because the 1985 Smith Woodhouse is normally 8+ points higher than this for me. But in keeping with the day's theme, there doesn't really seem to be anything obviously wrong with the bottle. It's not flawed, it's just lackluster.