One of the bottles I picked up at Sainsbury's pre-Christmas for £7.50 ($15)
Decanted off very little sediment (sludgy for those interested). Very dark in the glass with nice thick and sticky tears. Spicy nose but quite closed (only decanted 30 mins ago ). Very thick and dry in the mouth. No heat. A huge fruit-bomb of the darkest black fruits you can imagine. Finish is surprisingly short given the initial burst and fades quite quickly to a hint of mint on the end of the tongue. Very, very dry at the end. Bury some of this in the garden, Alex
For drinking now I would give this a 6. The dryness, mouthfeel and lack of sediment tell me this has legs so for potential I will give it an 7. So, 6-7 for a bottle that cost £7.50 - buy all you can 8)
A couple of hours on from decanting and this is starting to open up nicely. Black cherry appearing on the nose and now with a sweet, mouth-watering finish. The end is still minty and then very dry but the finish is now longer and more satisfying.
Nothing changes the initial score as I had made allowances for the short decant time.
I popped a Dow's crusted the other day (again 2000 bottling) to compare with the Graham's 2000 I bought from Sainsbury's. Although I generally prefer the drier Dow style, I think the Graham's was the nicer crusted for my taste.
It sometimes find that the oaky tones from a couple of years in barrel you find in Crusted and LBVs can be a bit clumsy with some the drier styles (I'm thinking Taylor, Dow) but is a much happier marriage with the fatter and sweeter styles (eg the Graham's, Warres). So for me, the Grahams was the nicer crusted, although I still perfer the drier Dow style in bottle matured VPs.
). Very thick and dry in the mouth. No heat. A huge fruit-bomb of the darkest black fruits you can imagine. Finish is surprisingly short given the initial burst and fades quite quickly to a hint of mint on the end of the tongue. Very, very dry at the end. Bury some of this in the garden, Alex 