For The Love Of Port

This is the best bottle so far from a case I bought a few years ago. Berry Brothers bottling. Wonderful aromas of fruit and tertiary products wafted from the just opened bottled. Decanted off some rather chunky sediment. I like it when the sediment is chunky, it's easy to decant. Color is going to tawny with a pale rim. Wonderful tertiary aromas, brown sugar, spices, toffee. Still with considerable sweet fruit. Still tannic on the finish. After a couple of hours of air, the tannins have dissipated. Sweet vigorous fruit with an excellent acidic balance. Intense and long. Lovely stuff, drinking well now. Will probably keep some more. Has not gone entirely tawny yet.

Eric,

From your description, your bottle shows more maturity and evolution than the four or five bottles of this I have had in the past two months to a year. Most were much more in their secondary stages of development and a couple showed as young as 1985s in terms of brightness of color and with some almost primary fruit characteristics. Maybe it is just the BBR bottlings that show more advanced qualities?

Hi Roy,
Actually this was the most youthful of the case so far. It's not fully tertiary yet, but well on it's way; at least this bottle. I bought this at a Christies/Zachys auction in NY (when they were still affiliated) about 8-9 years ago. Not completely sure of the provenence. What bottlings have you had if not Berry Bros.? I've been quite happy with this lot.

Eric,

What I have already consumed in terms of '63 Graham's I can not speak for who did the bottling as that is something I rarely write into my tasting notes (unfortunately). I can tell you that I do own Berry Bros. bottling as well as Oporto bottled "Finest Reserve" 1963 Graham's VP. The one I had in March was an Oporto bottling directly from the Graham's cellar and did not show as well as most previous bottles. Nothing negative here about BB&R, that is for sure!