x
  • Country ranking ?

    146
  • Producer ranking ?

    10
  • Decanting time

    1h
  • When to drink

    Now

Food Pairing

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

Dow’s Vintage Ports are only produced in years of exceptional quality and represent only a very small part of the total company’s production in that year. On average only two or three times every ten years are the weather conditions sufficiently good to allow for the making of Dow’s Vintage Port.

 

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Dow’s Vintage Ports have been landmark wines in virtually every great year, consistently setting the ...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

<10 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Deep, Ruby red and Dark

ending

Long, Lingering and Spicy

flavors

Blackberry, Blueberry, Licorice, Mineral, Nutty and Spice

nose

Intense, Complex, Ripe and Generous

taste

Average in Acidity, High tannin, Balanced, Good texture, Developing, Elegant, Fresh, Refined and Silky tannins

Verdict

Well-rounded and Sophisticated

Written Notes

Still great colour. Surprisingly youthful (perhaps more accurate to say still full of life). Good structure here. It is mature and offers the pleasures that brings, but there is obviously so much life still brimming in here. Leather and dark choc notes. Supple and with serious length. By chance, I'd seen this wine the previous week, a long way from the Douro at a tasting, and it had, for me, blown the competition away. 96.

  • 96p

Fleshy and raw, bursting with fruit on the palate but starting to close up. Deep, dark ruby purple, with intense tar and berry aromas, full-bodied, with ripe berry flavors, full tannins and a long finish.

  • 89p

The 1985 Dow’s Vintage Port has a gorgeous, very pure bouquet with mulberry, leather, terracotta tiles on a warm day, and hints of clove all beautifully defined. The palate is very well balanced with supple tannin, lightly spiced on the entry, touches of liquorice and black pepper, curry powder and ginger with a very harmonious and long finish. This may well be the pick of the 1985 declarations and appears to have edged past the Taylor Fladgate 1985 in recent years. Tasted at the "Big Fortified Tasting" in London.

  • 93p

Ruby. Figs, dates, tobacco, dried fruits, liquorice nose, some forest floor notes. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins softening, dried fruits, anise, liquorice, detailed and nuanced, long. 94

  • 94p
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Information

Origin

Vila Nova de Gaia, Douro
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