1977 Graham's Vintage Port

[Lamont Huxley]

I purchased this from an online auction recently for $55 and since it had obviously done some leaking in the past I decided to pop it open for my birthday the other night. The port was decanted for about 4 hours before consuming and I had a healthy portion left to drink the following day.

With a lot of effort I was able to extract most of the mushy, saturated cork intact but a small chunk fell off and had to be pushed into the bottle. After decanting and pouring myself a small sample I was a little worried that it may be a bit cooked - the nose showed a bit of a woody/cedary quality and there wasn't much fruit there. Thankfully, by the time we started drinking it it had opened up nicely and the cedar note had receded into the background.

On the nose it showed pleasant cherry/strawberry syrup with a touch of cedar and spice. The palate showed much the same cherry/strawberry fruit profile with a little caramel and still a hint of that cedar, but what was really nice about it was the silky, oily texture that just rolled around really beautifully on the tongue. All in all this was a really enjoyable, elegant drink with a smooth finish of moderate length that showed very well integrated alcohol and almost no tannin left. Tasting this the next day after nearly 24 hours it was holding up just fine.

This was my first experience with this VP so I'm not sure if this was showing more mature than better preserved examples, but regardless I enjoyed it very much. It was on the verge of taking on tawny-like characteristics but still had enough freshness to hold it all together. 92pts, Tasted 2/13

[Andy Velebil]

Interesting you mentioned the

woody/cedary quality

notes in it. I find a significant tobacco and cedar notes in a lot of Graham's vintages. The level varies a bit but is especially prominent in the Graham's Malvedos. Seems to be a unique character of this Port. One I enjoy in wines which helps me love Graham's even more.

[Roy Hersh]

Glad to hear of the very good integration of the alcohol, which in its early years was always my knock on this VP. Fortunately it seems to have come in synch over the past few years.