Graham's Malvedos Tasting April 22...Saturday

[John M.]

Hey!!

We are having a Malvedos tasting and have an open seat or two. If you live near northern New Jersey and want to come PM me.

84-86-88-90-92 Malvedos (nothing odd) plus Mystery Port.... and you'll get to meet some fellow Portophiles.

All in under $200 with bottle adoption and dinner out.

[Andy Velebil]

Sounds like fun, too bad I’m on the left coast

[Eric Menchen]

And I'm stuck in the middle. I have a couple bottles I could have contributed too :-|

[John M.]

And I'm stuck in the middle. I have a couple bottles I could have contributed too :-|

Does that make Andy a clown to your left and me a joker on your right? LOL. That's a classic song!

[Andy Velebil]

And I'm stuck in the middle. I have a couple bottles I could have contributed too :-|

Does that make Andy a clown to your left and me a joker on your right? LOL. That's a classic song!

Hah!

[Phil W]

I forget which ear that means you have to lose...

[Lucas S]

It was awesome. We only had 5 people and while it was good, we could easily have fit a couple more.

Mike JW also put in the '85 Graham's as the Mystery Bottle which worked well.

I had a difficult time doing the notes, as it was my first proper vertical. The horizontals seem way easier to do as you get starker contrasts.

All the Malvedoses were good, all were translucent except for the '86, and as John noted, were more of the strawberry flavor type.

My notes TLDR:
'84: Fully ready, very mild, strawberry syrup, super drinkable but admittedly not much complexity.
'86: 2nd darkest, quite opaque, reserved but with concentration, plenty of life left. Solid.
'88: darkest yet clear, darker character, bit acidic, I sensed the aroma was a bit off from the outset and it maybe had a little VA, the others rated it highly.
'90: weirdest by far, light, red candy flavors, Rozes-esque, floral, slightly sharp, the group didn't like it much but I didn't mind it
'92: youngest flavor but not bold or anything of that sort, disappointing in the way a raisiny 10 year old tawny can be.

Mystery '85: vibrant and fairly spicy, a perfumed flavor if that makes sense, wood note, a bit floral with some heat. Makes an impression.

I don't recall the group ratings exactly but for me the rankings were,
85 = 86 > 84 > 90 = 88 > 92

Thank you again John for hosting/organizing and Mike for supplying the bottles.

[John M.]

That was fun!! I'll upload notes and pics soon.

The 1990 was clearly off, the rest were very solid.

Good impressions and notes, Lucas!

[John M.]

Here is a recap of this fun evening. Mike W. had the entire set of the Graham's Malvedos and I was quite excited about this tasting as I'd only had the 1988, 1995 and 2009 versions before so my depth here was lacking--and who does not love Grahams? We had 6 bottles for 5 people (quite a small group) and was 5 Malvedos and a Mystery Port; we convened at 5:00, sat down about 5:30 once pouring and introductions were made, and at 6:30 went to town for dinner, followed by retasting these. Mike splash decanted in the morning and arrived at my house around 4:00 and all were put into proper decanters (seemed like the decant time was good).

Attendees were Mike W., Lucas S, Matt W (the "Tawny Tuesday" person!), my friend Jeff (Not a FTLOPer) and me

Here are my notes:

1984 Graham Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port – Clear rim with a deep orange red rim-chrystal clear. Quite a shy nose with just a hint of grass. Light to moderate weight. Very delicate taste of strawberry with a little spicy cherry on the end. Seems a bit faded, perhaps slightly past prime. 88 Points

1986 Graham Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port – Deep and dense maroon red; color is too red/magenta-ish and is suspected of having elderberry juice added for color purposes. Moderate weight. Touch of chocolate in the finish, slight soft piquant finish. But BOOM! - mainly it is blackberries on grape you remember. Quite lovely. 93 Points

1988 Graham Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port – The WOTN! Similar to 1984 in color, just not a clear. Nose puts out grass over dried red fruit. Moderate weight. Wow—what a Port. Reminds me of a 1970 Grahams with muted strawberry and a touch of cherry with a sweet, gentle protracted finish. This one is in a great spot to drink now. 95 Points

1990 Graham Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port (a.k.a. 1990 Graham Malvedos Centenary Vintage Port) – Lucite clear red maroon. The nose is rough – mercurochrome in nature. Moderate weight. Suspect a flawed bottle but not having had this before do not know. Moderate + weight. Has some sweetness, yet dry finish but that nose is tough to negotiate. Even pairing with food did not make it more palatable. Since flawed No Rating

1992 Graham Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port - Cloudy in the glass, on the dark side. Sweet nose with prunes and flowers. Distinctly different than the rest yet the flavors are Graham familiar with strawberry jam. 92 Points

1985 Grahams Vintage Port (the Mystery Port or Ringer) – Lucite red clear to orange rim. Slightly medicinal edge to nose. Layers of strawberry with hints of ground cinnamon of the finish. Semi-complex and well evolved. Quite a lovely Port and more delicate than I remember. If this is typical, a good spot for drinking now. Would be higher but for the nose so settle at 94 Points.

For the group ther 1988 was the WOTN with 3 first place votes and one 2nd (4 total repsonses in 3-2-1 format). 1985 Grahams was 2nd with 1.5 first place votes (4 responses). Overall, a good showing as 4 Ports were awesome and the 1984 was fine. As to the identity of the mystery Port it was clear to me it was a Grahams VP - similar color/chroma and the strawberry notes Grahams has for me. The year was a bit of a guess - but we all talked it over and in the end we got it right - given the state of the wine figured was one of 1980-1983-1985. A perfect guess has never happened before for me - I feel good if we get the producer or close to the correct year.

One nice thing with 6 bottles and 5 people - Lots of leftovers! Been enjoying since.

[Mike J. W.]

Great notes, John & Lucas. I've yet to be able to take great notes at a tasting, but I'll get the hang of it one of these days. For me like for the majority, the '88 Malvedos was the top dog. The '86 which is always good, didn't show as well as I expected, but 2 nights later it was still going strong and the '88 had faded a bit. You can't go wrong with either one of those Ports though. The '85 was very good and I liked the '92 as well. The '92 is young, but I think it will improve over another 10 year's time. The '84 was okay but not as good as the first 4 mentioned. It was still a pleasant drink nonetheless. This is the second time I've had the '90 Malvedos Centenary and both times it has underwhelmed. I purchased both '90's separately and although they both could have been stored improperly, I think it's more likely that it's just a subpar Port. I have another one or two in the cellar, so it'll be interesting to see how they show over the next several years.

All in all it was a fun night. Lots of banter back and forth about Ports of all types to the point that an hour in we had barely tasted any of them. Thanks John for graciously hosting us.

[Lucas S]

Great stuff.

Of the two samples I took home, the '84 held up well as of last night, the '90 totally fell off and grew in sharpness.