1985 Calem

The 1985 Vintage Port is a field blend—heavy on the "big three" of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca—coming in just under 106 grams per liter of residual sugar. When I originally saw this about five years back, it showed great. Whether due to the passage of time or just a different bottle, this is not as interesting. It's still good; it has some very modest tannins, but there's still a little bite on the finish. It seems fully resolved at roughly age 35, but perhaps was better and more expressive the next day. What it does best is be mature. That is, it shows the complexity and classic flavors of maturing Port. It is lovely, gentle, fresh and tasty. That said, for the moment, until some other bottle proves otherwise, I'm shortening the drinking window. That's not to say it won't meet the original prediction of 2035 or better, as these do not fall off the table and decline only slowly, but I think some caution is advised. It might be more likely to go down than up at this point. The price indicated of this library wine merely references the price in 2016, as of the last re-release, which was a nice deal for a mature Port.

Lovely tobacco smoke on the nose, plus marzipan, black cherry and milk chocolate. The pipe-tobacco scent lingers through the finish, as well as milky coffee flavours – the perfect after-dinner all-in-one?! Plenty of youthful fruit still available too. Decidedly better than several other 1985s which seem to have lost their primary fruit now. (RH)

Very brown. Leathery, liquorice, black cherry, chocolate and dry fruit. Venerable but getting a bit old now. (RH)