First, a long story. Daniel was born in 1990 and I decided to pick up a case of this port for him; bought it from some place in NYC. When I collected it, I didn't notice but the case must have been briefly but violently overheated (as you'll see below). Anyhow, it went into my dad's cellar and sat.
Two weeks ago, I moved all my wines and when I went to move this wood case, noticed that the bottom was rotting. Opened it and discovered, to my horror, that the bottles had clearly leaked in a major way -- a gunky mess. Bad news for Daniel.
Rather than just dump the stuff, though, we pulled a cork to see what the state of the wine was. Actually, no sign of damage, although I would love to try a bottle that hadn't been so mistreated.
The port is surprisingly good. Deep ruby. Nose of syrop de framboise or cassis, some spicy elements. On the palate a little light and short, but sweet, mouthcoating, and generally attractive. Give it an 89-90, but the question is then: is this basically how the Graham's Malvedos 90 actually tastes from a good bottle, or is this a great port knocked back a few notches by a brush with firely death on the streets of NYC?
Anyhow, I decided to keep the other 11 bottles. Nasty looking things, though. Probably have to come up with some other plan for when Daniel and Sarah turn 25....
1990 Graham's Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port -- (potentially flawed btl)
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