For The Love Of Port

Of all places, I ran across this in my local Ralphs market for $35.00 (US) a bottle. Never had a bottle so I picked up 2 just to have. Anyone have any experience with this one?

They still had a few left if anyone is interested...it's the Brea store.

No experience with the 96 Malvedos but I have bought some 95 Malvedos recently and it was quite good. I would be very optimistic for the 96 especiallly at $35!
I have had great success with the Graham's Malvedos over the years. I would try it from any year.

I've got one bottle of 1988 in the cellar. Anyone tasted this recently?

The last time I've tasted the 88 was 3 years ago and it was stunning for this 2nd brand port of Graham's. I was suppose to open one 2 weeks ago but finally I've put it back in the cellar to wait for a friend whose wedding year is 88.

It was showing great depth and concentration, lovely floral tones and spices with very young dark fruits. Vintage quality in a undeclared year, was my impression.

For the 96, I'd have to do some search in my tasting note, I believe I have tasted it in the last 3 years in a wine fair.

Thanks everyone, I haven't heard much about the Malvedos SQVP until now. I look forward to trying it.

Fred, If you are able to locate that TN, I'd really appreciate it.

Andy, I've made some search, unfortunately, it is the 95 that I've tried 3 times during these wine fair. I've tried the 88 and 95 so far. I was really impressed by the 88 but disapointed with the 95 finding it clearly thin and lacking substance.

Fred,
I appreciate you taking the time to search. If I get my errands done this morning I plan on decanting one and trying it over a couple of days. After all, it is port weather here in Los Angeles...been raining since last night and it's supposed to piss here until tomorrow...positively unacceptable

Well, good news on both fronts. The rains stopped yesterday afternoon and the sun came out 8) and the port was wonderful

I decanted it at noon and had just a little taste before I ran out the door. Didn't have time for a proper TN, but my brief impression was "I am glad I openned this now and not waited until this evening." There was a fair amount of tannis and heat masking the nose and fruit. A couple friends came over for dinner and this ended up being the dessert.

8 hours later the color had gotten much darker, with just a very slightly lighter rim. Great nose of plums and berries. Blackberries, plums, and a touch of vanilla that had integrated very nicely over the past 8 hours. The finish was long. This is a very good SQVP (translated...go buy more).

OK, you all want a score I'd say 92 right now, but this one needs at least 5-7 years more in the cellar, at which time it has potential to go up 1-2 points.

Roy just reviewed it in his last newsletter. Take a look!

8) ..I havn't had the chance to look at the newsletter until now. Roy is absolutely right, this one is powerful :!:

Managed to get a snifter of the 1996 whilst I was at the Decanter tasting in November. I was getting tauper-tongue by the time that I got around to the Graham's stand but this is what I wrote:

Quinta dos Malvedos 1996 - Had reasons to taste this a little longer as I have eight bottles purchased at a price of £10 each, which upset the man from Graham's, who very nearly called me a liar but pulled back. They're all sitting upsatairs - promise. Well, it's certainly dark. Thick and viscose in the glass, cherries abound but this is too young, so they're staying upstairs.

I opened a half bottle of Malvedos 1996 over the weekend and wrote up a tasting note before coming back to this thread and re-reading everyone else's notes.

The wine was surprisingly light when decanted, some sediment remained in the bottle, but not a lot considering the wine is 10 years old. Cork was very swollen and difficult to remove, despite the wine having stood upright for a week and a half. Mahogany in colour, with a slight brown rim. Blueberries on the nose from the wine going into the decanter.

After 11 hours, the wine was tasted. Deep, impenetrable red, very dark colour, right into the rim. Not much on the nose, perhaps a hint of blueberries, some fresh smelling spirit, touch of dust. Sweet blueberry juice into the mouth with a nice acidic structure. Good mid-palate complexity with some nutmeg and spices. Slight alcoholic burn on swallowing, which slowly drifts into a long tasty length of spiced coffee. 91/100.

I was quite impressed with the wine, although I didn't go into raptures about it. Its a wine which I will enjoy drinking when I come across a bottle, but not one which I will hunt around to find. Mind you, if I found a stash at £10 a bottle like Alex K, I'd buy them all up!

Alex