1985 Churchill
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- Fonseca 1980
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- Joined: 15:35 Mon 13 May 2019
1985 Churchill
Fascinating. This is somewhat affected by VA. I couldn't at first tell whether it was also either badly corked; or slightly corked and suffering from a bacteriological problem. I have resorted to the clingfilm trick. Thereafter I think the latter is more accurate, but the VA is making it difficult to tell.
Underneath there is some quite pleasant mature red-fruited port.
Underneath there is some quite pleasant mature red-fruited port.
Re: 1985 Churchill
Do say more...
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- Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: 1985 Churchill
Sounds like a very poor bottle of Ch85.
At one stage it was suggested that there might have been two bottlings, one better than the other, but having had quite a lot of these I think there is simply some variation, though most I've had have been very enjoyable. For a while this was one of the bottles I always included as the VP when hosting "introduction to port" tastings with a bottle of each style (reserve, LBV, VP, tawnies) as it was reliable as well as good QPR. I hope that if you have other bottles, that they should show a lot better.
At one stage it was suggested that there might have been two bottlings, one better than the other, but having had quite a lot of these I think there is simply some variation, though most I've had have been very enjoyable. For a while this was one of the bottles I always included as the VP when hosting "introduction to port" tastings with a bottle of each style (reserve, LBV, VP, tawnies) as it was reliable as well as good QPR. I hope that if you have other bottles, that they should show a lot better.
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- Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Re: 1985 Churchill
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- Fonseca 1980
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- Joined: 15:35 Mon 13 May 2019
Re: 1985 Churchill
2,4,6 trichloroanisole bonds to polyvinylchloride in preference to remaining in a wine. So if you roughly place a couple of feet of PVC (not LDPE) clingfilm in a bowl and pour the wine over it and leave it half an hour then extract and dispose of the PVC you will lessen the corkiness. It rarely makes the wine enjoyable drinking, since we are so sensitive to TCA (except Glenn) and some usually remains, but it is a useful test to see whether what you were detecting was TCA or another fault. In this case, lessening the TCA enabled me to confirm my suspicion that the wine was dirty as well as corked.
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- Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Re: 1985 Churchill
Ooooh, science! That's is a brilliant trick - thanks for sharing George.winesecretary wrote: ↑09:27 Fri 28 May 2021 2,4,6 trichloroanisole bonds to polyvinylchloride in preference to remaining in a wine. So if you roughly place a couple of feet of PVC (not LDPE) clingfilm in a bowl and pour the wine over it and leave it half an hour then extract and dispose of the PVC you will lessen the corkiness. It rarely makes the wine enjoyable drinking, since we are so sensitive to TCA (except Glenn) and some usually remains, but it is a useful test to see whether what you were detecting was TCA or another fault. In this case, lessening the TCA enabled me to confirm my suspicion that the wine was dirty as well as corked.
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- Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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- Joined: 13:22 Wed 17 Feb 2021
- Location: Douro Valley
Re: 1985 Churchill
That's a neat trick.
Re: 1985 Churchill
Agreed. I bought a case of Ch85 after Julian introduced me to it (in Paris, as I recall), and my bottles have all been very nice. It isn't an astoundingly good Port even with the best bottles, but I've routinely rated it around 92-94 points. Its style is almost too dry for me, but not quite so I still find it enjoyable and one of the better VPs from 1985 after you drop below F85 and G85.
Glenn Elliott
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- Fonseca 1980
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Re: 1985 Churchill
I wholly agree this was a poor bottle. I still drank three glasses of it, over three days, despite its faults, but in the end it went down the sink.
I've had and enjoyed G85 a couple of times recently. t's been a long time since I had any F85. I need to rectify that.
I've had and enjoyed G85 a couple of times recently. t's been a long time since I had any F85. I need to rectify that.