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Last week I opened a bottle of Warre 83. Usually one of the best wines of this Vintage.

But the bottle was obviusly not perfect. In the nose a little bit alcoholic and volatile acid. On the palate not really bad, but weaker than in memory.

I also remember, that I had a similar problem with Warre 77 (this was also theme here a year ago) and Warre 85 too.

Did you made same expierences with Warre 83 and 85?

I really like Warre '77 (it was for a long while my "house" port) but you're right that there is quite some variation with it. I've been much less impressed with the '83 and '85 from Warre - but then I've generally been less impressed with those years from many producers which was one of the reasons that led me to this forum many years ago.

Looking back to my notes on W83 and W85 specifically, it seems that for me in comparing the W85 to other '85s generally, I don't see it suffering particularly more variation than others; In looking at my ratings for each I see no significant variation in ratings of T85, F85, D85, Ch85 and Ca85 according to my notes, and only G85 with clearly more significant variation (which surprises me, given the usual "safe bet" status of Graham). Whether this says anything about G85, or about the variety of source from which I have tasted bottles of G85 I do not know.

Surprisingly - given my penchant for Warre - it seems I have only had W83 once. Sadly it was rubbish, perhaps a faulty bottle - I have it "not rated", assumed (I hope) faulty. In general my experience across the '83s is less than the '85s, the only fair conclusion I can draw (where I have the wine enough times for potential statistical significance) is that there seems to be minimal variation in F83 or G83; the latter somewhat interestingly, given my comments on G85 above; one faulty bottle of each, but otherwise pretty much identical ratings across several years of tasting.

thanks for your detailed reply Phil.

there is only one conclusion - we have drink more W83 and W85 to evaluate this bottle variation theory.

I have drunk a fair amount of the Warre 85 and it has shown quite a lot of variation. No actual duds but some decidedly browner and thinner specimens. The Warre 80 I have drunk many times with hardly any variation. I think I have tried the 83 just once and thought it like a lot of 83s, rather dour, more Boycott than Hameed (this will mean nothing to anyone who does not follow cricket, apologies) but I wonder now if it was just a dud bottle.

But I still think that Warre is about the most dependable shipper.