1977 Smith Woodhouse vintage port

[Rune EG]

Decanted 6.5 hrs. Cork was soaking wet. Quite a lot of sediments. Medium dark red colour. Deep aroma of old cellar, fruit and prunes. Additionally, oak and some minerals. Full to medium body. Taste was elegant, some power, berries, oak wonderful tannins minerals/terroir. Long aftertaste dominated by berries. Not too sweet, nice acidity. This vintage port is still “performing” well. 93 pts.

[Eric Menchen]

I love this one. I'm glad your soaking wet cork wasn't a problem.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

[Mahmoud Ali]

The Smith Woodhouse is probably the best '77 I've had along with the Fonseca.

Mahmoud.

[Roy Hersh]

This Port has always been the darkest and most extracted of the vintage. Andy has a theory on why that is the case. Nonetheless, even as a youngster, it was a major fruit bomb with deeply concentrated flavors and loads of material and structure. It is a Jancis Robinson and Richard Mayson favorite. My take has always been that the one thing that's missing, is complexity, as I have found it delicious, rich, smooth and simple ... overall. That said, it is always a crowd pleaser, but I've prefered its sibling, Gould Campbell, which for my palate has greater mid-section depth and a more profound aftertaste too. Maybe a point apart, but still, I remember being aggravated when this went from $19 per bottle up to $29 per bottle around 1991 and then by 1994-1995 it rose again to $39 as the best price in the USA, as the Port market in America was really catching on at that point. Yes, that was long before Winesearcher ... but there were really only 5-10 places in the entire country worth buying VP from in those days, so it was easy to keep track.

[Rune EG]

I agree with you Roy!
For me SW 77 has been generally on 93 pts-level,
while GC 77 has an average of 95 pts.

[Glenn E.]

I, too, usually prefer the GC over the SW, but it's close and I wouldn't complain about drinking either one of them!

Fonseca is the best of the vintage for me, though Taylor is also very good. And I guess I've been lucky with Graham, because I haven't had the problems that everyone else seems to have - G77 is fantastic!

[Roy Hersh]

I had the 1977 Graham's, Fonseca, Taylor exactly a week ago. The first bottle of Taylor was corked. These were in the same flight. The next bottle as a re-pour showed no signs of taint, but clearly this Taylor was not a typical showing, and both the Graham's 93 pts. and Fonseca 94+ were more to my liking. Again, I usually find the Taylor is neck and neck with the Fonseca and a step up from Graham's in 1977. The past "issues" with the '77 Graham's is no longer relevant.