TN: Graham crusted 1985

Tom Archer · Post by **Tom Archer** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 2:23 pm

Just a quick bottle to tide me over to NYE

I picked up a few bottles very cheaply (under £12) at auction a few months back.

Decanted easily, but not 100% clear. Otherwise had the colour and elegance of a mature wine.

Both taste and bouquet are classic Graham: Xmas pudding in a bottle!

Reinforces my suspicion that crusted ports are almost always drunk too young. At 20 years, this wine tastes youthful, and will probably improve further over the next few years.

I do have some Graham '85 VP, although they are still tucked up in their case. At some point in the future I must do a back to back comparison.

Tom

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:00 am

Crusted has always been a British fetish when it comes to that category and not until recently, was there much of it ever shipped to the USA. We can find young bottles only and nothing pre-1990 that is crusted ... unless brought over by a retailer on the "gray market."

Dow's is probably the major player in this arena in the USA but again, they are young pups and for my money ... "what for?" OTOH, if I could find one from 1985 it would certainly be interesting to taste next to a Graham's VP from the same year! Purely for the sake of science of course.