Well Structured, Focused Fruit                                  Very Good (87)
The 1980 vintage has been overlooked since it was first sold in 1982 as Futures. Its very good quality was never in question; however, the wine trade, mostly in the United Kingdom believed it was too expensive. The 1980s have remained in the shadow of the amazingly good 1977s, 1983s and 1985s. The wines themselves are very typical vintage Ports, with firm, wellfocused fruit and plenty of backbone. Most will be drinking well in the early 1990s, and will continue to improve for another decade or two.

The growing season was variable in 1980. After a wet winter, the spring began with plenty of rain, and the weather warmed by the start of the summer. There was a poor flowering, which reduced the number of berries on the vines. The months of June, July and August were dry and hot, which helped what appeared to be a difficult year. Some rain fell before the harvest in late September, but the picking or the grapes was done under mostly clear skies, although scattered showers occasionally fell.

The Symington group made the stars of the vintage - Dow, Graham, Warre and Smith Woodhouse. Taylor Fladgate also made a successful vintage Port. Not all the big names had success. For instance, the 1980 is Fonseca's worse vintage Port this century. Even the legendary Noval Nacional was rather weak. Some major houses such as Croft, Noval and Cockburn decided not to declare the year. Those shippers who did made much smaller quantities than normal.
Sweet, Raisiny, Unbalanced         Good (84)
There are some very good 1982 vintage Ports, but few truly outstanding ones. Croft and Quinta do Noval led the field in declaring the vintage, and both were apparently extremely keen on the year. Noval has since agreed that the vintage has not evolved as well as first expected. Croft remains positive about the year, though its 1982 is very weak. Clearly, there are some delicious wines from 1982, and those like Graham's Malvedos, Niepoort and Warre Quinta da Cavadinha would honor anyone's decanter. They are sweet, velvety wines with a round and fruity mouth-feel.

My one major complaint with 1982, however, is that many wines seemed to have been made with grapes that were much too ripe. Many of the 1982s are too sweet and raisiny on the palate and are slightly unbalanced, lacking the class of 1983 or 1980. The vintage is in the same league as the very sweet 1978 or perhaps the 1950. It will not be a long-lived vintage but should drink well until 2000 to 2005.

There was little rain in 1982. The Douro Valley was in near-drought conditions for most of the year. The winter was cold, and precipitation was almost nonexistent. The spring was also dry and the vines flowered under excellent conditions. The summer was blistering hot and rain never fell. By the time the harvest started in the second week of September, many of the grapes already had begun to shrivel like raisins. Nonetheless, the harvest was completed with little difficulty, and although the fermentations were hot and hard to control in some areas due to the high sugar levels, most Port producers were happy with the quality of their wines.

I have only found two wines from this vintage that are outstanding - Graham's Malvedos and Niepoort. Malvedos is beefy, thick and fruity on the palate, with luscious fruit flavours Niepoort was a close second, also showing plenty of opulent, sweet fruit arid firm tannins Most of the other 1982s are very close in quality and I rated most of them as very good. One vintage Port in 1982 that was of particular interest came from Montes Champalimaud. It is a single quinta wine made near the town of Régua in the lower part of the Douro where most of the more common Ports originate. with a deep colour and extremely sweet fruit, the 1982 Champalimaud shows that good wines are not found just in the Cima Corgo.
Powerful, Tannic, Ageworthy                                      Outstanding (92)
The more I taste 1983s, the better I like them. They are muscular, and underline what Port shippers mean when thev say a young Port has grip. The best 1983s were still very tannic and almost raw at six years old. The top wines, like Graham and Cockburn, will age as well as any of the 1985s, and should not be drunk until the turn of the century. I still do not understand why the vintage was not declared generally. 1983 was what the Port trade calls a split vintage, since some houses opted to declare 1982. Those who chose 1982 clearly made a mistake. The 1983 is similar in style and structure to 1966, which is another tannic, powerful year that is drinking extremely well after nearly 25 years of bottle age.

The weather during 1983 was variable, but in the end, these variations seemed to moderate the sometimes severe weather during the growing season in the Douro Valley. The winter was very cold and dry, while most of the spring was exceedingly wet. These conditions led to poor flowering in some vineyards. The summer did not help the situation; it was rather moderate in temperature with some rain. In early September nature turned on the afterburners, and what some growers had first thought would be a disastrous vintage turned into a glorious harvest. With an average-size crop, growers picked healthy grapes under clear skies.

Most well-known houses that declared 1983 made very good to outstanding wines. Some of the surprises of the vintage included Offley Boa Vista, Smith Woodhouse, Ferreira, Quinta do Seixo and Quarles Harris. Powerful, burly wines with an abundance of fruit and tannins, they are as good as the big, names of the vintage such as Taylor and Fonseca. Another interesting facet to the vintage is that Cockburn re-entered the vintage Port game after standing on the sidelines since 1975. The hard-hitting 1983 Cockburn puts this house firmly back with the top vintage Port producers.
Lean, Linear, One Dimensional      Good (80)
I may be slightly overcritical of 1984. The vintage made some very attractive wines, but it is not surprising to me that none of the major houses declared 1984. The vines are rather lean and one-dimensional. Still, they show very appealing, straightforward fruit flavours and silky tannins. The most successful vines are Quinta de Vargellas, Dow Quinta do Bomfim, Burmester and Graham's Malvedos. All of the 1984s will be delicious by the mid-1990s.
Opulent, Intense, Solid Backbone                                             Classic (96)
Producers found the 1985 vintage stupendous from the start. These Ports are filled with rich and firm tannins. This was a year when nearly everybody made good wines, and it was the first time a unanimous declaration was made since 1975. There are dozens of very good to outstanding wines in this vintage. Some critics say that 1985 lacks the backbone or grip of a truly great vintage, but every time I taste a range of 1985s, I am bowled over by their huge amounts of luscious fruit and round tannins. The best 1985s have the structure to compare with the 1966s, 1955s, 1935s and 1934s. I recommend drinking the best 1985s starting in the late 1990s. I have heard of people drinking 1985s just five years after the vintage, and though it is diffilcult to resist all that sweet fruit, those who do will surely be rewarded.

The 1985 vintage was a classic in every way. The year started with a normal cold winter although the months of February and March were slightly warmer than usual. With some rain in the spring, temperatures remained normal until summer. In June it became extremely warm and the rest of the summer was perfect. The grapes were picked in near-perfect condition. With a large, healthy harvest, fermentations went well. Many Port producers said they could tell from the moment the grapes were fermented that they had a winner.

The best wines of the vintage come as no surprise. Fonseca, Graham, Nacional, Taylor, Dow and Cockburn are sublime. There are a few dark horse wines in 1985, however, that could finish in front of some of the better known houses in years to come. They include Burmester Kopke, Niepoort and Smith Woodhouse. All three houses represent extraordinary quality for the money. The best wines should not be opened until the turn of the century - they will carry on for another two or three decades.
Firm, Gutsy, A Little Simple        Good (80)
The 1986 vintage will not go down in history books as an exceptional vintage. No one declared it, although some very fine single-Quinta and second-label vintage Ports were made. The wines in general are slightly softer and rounder than the 1987s. They lack the breeding of the 1987s or 1985s. Nonetheless, the best of the vintage, like Vargellas and Fonseca-Guimaraens, are pretty wines that should be drinkahle about a decade after the harvest.
Balanced, Elegant, Good Finesse                                         Average (74)
The 1987 vintage is very good, and most Port shippers agree that the year could easily have been declared generally if there had been more wine to go around. Most of the leading names in Port decided to make single-quinta or second-label vintage Ports. Quite a few house did declare, however, including Niepoort, Ferreira, Martinez, Offley and various single quintas.

The majority of vintage Ports I have tasted from 1987 have a wonderful balance of fine tannins and elegant fruit. Although I never tasted the 1967 vintage when it was young, there seems to be a harmonious structure similar to the 1987. They may not be the longest-lived wines, but the 1987s will provide extremely good drinking 10 to 15 years after the harvest date.

The vintage was one of low yields; the weather was dry through most of the winter and spring, with rainfall around half the norm. Grapes were slow to develop, but the dry, hot summer weather, with temperatures often reaching over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, put the grapes back on schedule. Growers in the Douro Valley realized the harvest would be one of the earliest in memory; most started in early September. There were a few days of rain during the harvest, but for the most part grapes were picked in extremely good condition. Yields were slightly below average, as was the overall quantity of the vintage.

Some of the stars of the vintage are Quinta do Noval Nacional, Quinta de vargellas, Malvedos, Niepoort, Fonseca-Guimaraens, Quinta do Noval and Ferreira. 1987 has not been well received by the trade, even though the Niepoort, Quinta do Noval and Ferreira are very good quality, perhaps better than their 1985s. Collectors who missed out on these houses' 1985s Would do well buying their 1987s. Some of the other Ports, such as the Vargellas, Malvedos and Fonseca-Guimaraens, will probably not be released on the market until mid-1990. Their excellent quality will be worth the wait.