1977 Graham's Vintage Port
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:34 pm
I purchased this from an online auction recently for $55 and since it had obviously done some leaking in the past I decided to pop it open for my birthday the other night. The port was decanted for about 4 hours before consuming and I had a healthy portion left to drink the following day.
With a lot of effort I was able to extract most of the mushy, saturated cork intact but a small chunk fell off and had to be pushed into the bottle. After decanting and pouring myself a small sample I was a little worried that it may be a bit cooked - the nose showed a bit of a woody/cedary quality and there wasn't much fruit there. Thankfully, by the time we started drinking it it had opened up nicely and the cedar note had receded into the background.
On the nose it showed pleasant cherry/strawberry syrup with a touch of cedar and spice. The palate showed much the same cherry/strawberry fruit profile with a little caramel and still a hint of that cedar, but what was really nice about it was the silky, oily texture that just rolled around really beautifully on the tongue. All in all this was a really enjoyable, elegant drink with a smooth finish of moderate length that showed very well integrated alcohol and almost no tannin left. Tasting this the next day after nearly 24 hours it was holding up just fine.
This was my first experience with this VP so I'm not sure if this was showing more mature than better preserved examples, but regardless I enjoyed it very much. It was on the verge of taking on tawny-like characteristics but still had enough freshness to hold it all together. 92pts, Tasted 2/13
With a lot of effort I was able to extract most of the mushy, saturated cork intact but a small chunk fell off and had to be pushed into the bottle. After decanting and pouring myself a small sample I was a little worried that it may be a bit cooked - the nose showed a bit of a woody/cedary quality and there wasn't much fruit there. Thankfully, by the time we started drinking it it had opened up nicely and the cedar note had receded into the background.
On the nose it showed pleasant cherry/strawberry syrup with a touch of cedar and spice. The palate showed much the same cherry/strawberry fruit profile with a little caramel and still a hint of that cedar, but what was really nice about it was the silky, oily texture that just rolled around really beautifully on the tongue. All in all this was a really enjoyable, elegant drink with a smooth finish of moderate length that showed very well integrated alcohol and almost no tannin left. Tasting this the next day after nearly 24 hours it was holding up just fine.
This was my first experience with this VP so I'm not sure if this was showing more mature than better preserved examples, but regardless I enjoyed it very much. It was on the verge of taking on tawny-like characteristics but still had enough freshness to hold it all together. 92pts, Tasted 2/13