1963 Graham's Vintage Port

[Richard Henderson]

Another of the Berry Bros bottling from my cellar opened for Boxing Day. A great pale ruby color. Great nose, great mouth entry, very smooth, decanted for four hours. Not hot at all. Just pure ripe fruit, meaning fine grapes, some nice spice notes, long finish. I do someimtes wonder why "grape" has a negative connotation in describing fine wine. We seem to call it any thing but a grape. That can be negative as in grapy or cloying. But nice rich, ripe grapes, why not call it that?

[Roy Hersh]

You are absolutely correct, although rarely have I thought of using grape or grapy in a negative way intentionally. But now that I think about it, I see your point. Nothing wrong with using grape or grapy whatsoever, imo.

[Glenn E.]

Yikes! Is this another seemingly neutral term that I'm going to have to avoid using in the future?

I use "grapey" all the time in TNs and have never meant it in a negative way. To me it is just a descriptor.

[Richard Henderson]

I have not thought of grapey as necessarily being a negative term, but others do. Grapey seems to have a negative connotation like Mogen David, cloying sweet. I think of Welch's grape juice and grape jam when I think of grapey.
What I see or hear most of the time is how a port has flavors of cherries, ripe dark berry fruit , plums etc. or we say it had lots of fruit. To me that means some really fine grapes. Our descriptors for wines seem to use any word but grapes.
I think I can use fruit or fine grapes , but I avoid grapey.
Good for you, Glenn, if you have been doing otherwise.
Maybe this is worth a thread on the port forum?

[Jim R.]

I also have used that term in a negative connotation. To me it means a wine that has not formed a clean or complex nose. I can see where it would be a pleasant descriptor for a younger wine.

[Moses Botbol]

Using "grape" in describing port sounds positive to me; the port is still primary.