1966 Graham's Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

Opened on 1/25/2013 in memory of Michael Symington. Bottled by Grant's of St. James and purchased from Wine Consigners in February of 2012.

1966 Graham's VP

Color: Dark ruby red through and through with just the faintest hint of bricking starting to show. The fade at the rim looks ever so slightly orange instead of purely pink. The center of the glass strays toward burgundy or something darker.

Nose: A bit of spirit which I've come to expect in well-aged Ports. Some dark stone fruit, possibly plum but not quite. Also some very ripe, sweet, loganberry or possibly blackberry. Definitely cassis. Some hints of strawberry as well.

Palate: Almost light and fanciful, the first taste dances in your mouth. Cassis and a plum/prune hybrid are foremost, with lots of rich black cherry backing them up. There's a very faint mint overtone that lightens the darker flavors. There's also some darker milk chocolate. After feeling light on entry, the full body reveals itself once settled. There are still plenty of tannins, leading me to believe that this hasn't even reached its peak yet. Maybe another 5 years to do that, then a very long plateau. At +40 hours it has developed a bit of a cough syrup tone, but that wasn't present on the first evening.

Finish: pleasant warmth is followed by a somewhat dry tannic grip. The fruits resolve here closer to raspberry than anything else. Good length, but not what I would call long. After a bit of chocolate, the tail resolves with a long apple note.

Score: 96 points. Simply outstanding. I shared this bottle with a couple of friends who are relatively new to Port and who greatly prefer tawnies to rubies, and their reaction was similar to mine the first time I had a 1947 Noval: "Oh, okay, now I get it. If this is what Vintage Port aspires to be, I understand the fanaticism." I smiled and thought, my work here is done.

[Tom D.]

It's nice to see a good bottle from Wine Consigners. They always struck me as a very odd operation, and I've not had the best of luck with older bottles from them. Maybe I need to give them another try.

[Glenn E.]

I've had nothing but great experiences with them since I first discovered them in probably about 2009. Most of the horror stories I've heard pre-date the current management, which has been working hard to repair the reputation of the company.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Roy Hersh]

Good work Glenn. I still have some of this Port too, but not much. I think there are still a couple of mags as well. For you to give a score like that, I am sure you must have been smitten!