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A tasting of 1980s, on Wednesday 20th October 2021, at the Boot & Flogger, arranged George G.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• 1980 Fonseca;
• 1980 Taylor;
• 1980 Croft Quinta da Roêda;
• 1980 Sandeman;
• 1980 Offley;
• 1980 Burmester;
• 1980 Dow;
• 1980 Graham;
• 1980 Warre;
• 1980 Smith Woodhouse;
• 1980 Gould Campbell;
• 1980 Quinta do Noval Nacional;
• 1980 Niepoort;
• 1980 Cálem Quinta da Foz;
• Placemats (mentioned in issue 151; a revisit of the design of 02Mar2012);
• Planning and arrangements.

Didn't make a note for the colour (I have lots of difficulty here anyways). As with most Ports, nose was a bit muted - nothing particular stood out. Palate was really up my street, chocolatey fudge. Lovely stuff (pos 4 for me).

Good colour. Red but slightly fading. Limited fruit on the nose. Attractive in the mouth, with a saturating flood of flavours that I didn’t see in the other 1980s which made it hard to unpick individual ones. Perhaps even (atypically for a Graham’s) a touch of umami? Long aftertaste. Very good.

Mid red, reddish rim. Very muted on the nose. My notes indicated that it didn’t open up as the tasting progressed. It wasn’t as rich on the palate as I was hoping for – and the palate was a mixed bag overall. Almost no grip. I would really have liked to have tried this with a longer decant time.

A lovely deep cherry red colour, mature rich and delicious; 50% opaque. Very little on the nose, perhaps just some bitter slow. The texture on entry is wonderful, the flavours of sour cherry growing in the mouth with just a hint of tannin. Sour cherry and black wine gums on the finish, which is of decent length. This is slightly better than the average of the wines at this tasting. 85/100. Drunk 20-Oct-21. Decanted 12 hours.