Had this after dinner while out at our favorite restaurant. Not paired with anything.

Not bad but seems to suffer from volitile acidity. I asked when the bottle had been opened and they said the night before. I'm assuming it wasn't decanted but came straight from the bottle.

Light nose and slight whiffs of VA (sort of a citric-fingernail polish smell). Fruit is not very dense considering the wines reputation and rating. Tanins fading. Not huge, not bad (in the mouth the acidity seemed reduced but was still present), not what I expected. Balanced with a medium length finish. About 87 pts.

A caveat, my experience with aged VP is limited, I've had a number of '85s and a couple of '83s, some worse, some better than the Grahams. This was a big step down form the '83 Dows for example but better than the '85 Croft I had.

...and that's another '85 VP turned sour...I recall tsunami talking about the VA in this wine. Thankfully, I don't have this one in the cellar, and I'll refrain from buying it. Thanks for the TN, JHD!

I have gone through a case of this wine and had no problems to date. I have two additional cases in storage and don't expect any problems. It maybe a storage issue.

As far as the '83 Dows, it has continued to be one of the worst tasting experiences I have endured with vintage port. The '83 Crofts is good, but the '83 Gould-Campbell is better.

I drink plenty of VP and consider the '85 Grahams to be top notch.

Never drink wine until the grapes have been crushed.

I'm with you portsmouth...I've had the '85 Graham's at least a 1/2 dozen times over the last 2-3 years...always good.

I've still got a few bottles left.

I offer sound advice.
That's 99% sound and 1% advice

Bummer.
I haven't had any prob with '85 graham's, but with several other '85s...

The problem with the VA is, that not necessarily all bottles are infected. Therefore it is very well possible that there are perfectly good and rotten bottles around.

Among others, the 1985 Niepoort I drank was very badly infected with VA, and although Dirk van der Niepoort acknowledges the problem, he also claims that there are bottles around that are still good (he talked about this when he was a guest on the eBob forum).

Just to make things more complicated....

portsmouth - Seemed definitely like VA within my limited (about 3-4 times w/'85s) experience with it. Since it was from a restaurant, storage may have exacerbated the problem.

I've had the '83 Dows and '83 Smith Woodhouse and thought the Dows to be much better, the bottle I had was a 94 pointer. What did you experience and how many times?

I certainly hope this isn't pervasive in Grahams as you (and tyee) suggest, I only have a single bottle but want it to be good!

J. Henry:

When did you last have the '83 Dow? I've only got one bottle and I'm still holding it. Wondering if I should wait another 3-5 years (or more), or if it's ready to go.

futronic - Last had it about two years ago and it seemed close to peak. Couldn't estimate the hold time here, not enough to go on.

time will tell


i found a hint of va at the taste last time i had the 85 graham's

i also had this several times bevor, and beleve me
the cellar is top!

as you guy's sertainly know that several super-wines
have a hint of va, as the 1990 montrose and the 1947
cheval blanc just to mention the most famus.

so i don't know if it will boder the graham's once
or not. but time will tell, and i have also a few
bottles left so i also will find out (hopfully)

Tragically, this is the 85 of which I have the most, adn I've got so many 85s because I was hoping to drink them to celebrate various wedding anniversaries over the coming years, beginning with our 20th next year.

I've only had this once, thanks to Tsunami, and he thought that bottle was v.a.-tainted. I couldn't really tell, to be honest, perhaps because it was the middle of the night and we'd drunk and eaten so much fabulous food and wine that my taste buds were passed-out from pleasure!

Here's hoping I get lucky with my bottles....

BTW, JHD and Futronic, of the handful of 83s I've tasted, including the Dow, I think a few more years would deliver more improvement. Several things I've read suggest that the 85s will mature before the 83s, especially the top bottlings of the latter.

Pistons rule!

I just picked up a bottle of the '85 Graham in the LCBO's recent sale (LINK). I think I'll wait until at least next year when it's 20 years old before giving it a try.

SLAN: Hope you have bought a good bottle . Enjoy it.

Thanks!

I've had the 1983 and 1985 Dow's and Graham's several times each, though none recently, and never noticed any excess va.

Just one more sip.

1985 Warre's - Anyone had this lately? I have one sitting down in my cellar and was curious if its been having the same problems.

warre's is defnetly infected by vat
my suggestion is to open it better now than later
because the vat taste will get stronger and stronger

I suppose I might as well give it a go, it obviously isn't going to get any better.

pull the cork of that Warre and hope for the best... I tasted it somewhere last year and it was horrible.

I suppose to offset my disappointment, I'll have to be sure to open a couple of other really nice bottles!!

Opened another bottle of this a couple of weekends ago.
Enjoyed it over 3 evenings of sun-sets while on a kayaking trip.
It was a last minute decision to take this, so it wasn't decanted or strained...just stood it up for a couple of hours each night before pouring.

No obvious sign of VA (to me).
Very silky...nice black-cherry, and still showing structure, depth, dimension, and length.
No doubt a high 80 pter. to 90 pts.

This is probably the 6th-7th-8th (?) time I've had this over the years...
This VPort seems to be unchanged for the last 3-4 years, probably won't get any better...but should still has some legs left if you wish to hold.

Tyee: try to save a bottle just in case the Roots are around some time......

quote:

Tyee: try to save a bottle just in case the Roots are around some time

No problem-o...

BTW, just the hint that you may be back will send a shock-wave of fear thru the crab population in the sea here...

quote:

st the hint that you may be back will send a shock-wave of fear thru the crab

not a shck-wave, a tsunami