For The Love Of Port

I was wondering if anyone had any information on this bottling that I believe was released in 1999? Is there a difference between this and the regular bottling of the 1977? Thanks.

Paul

As far as I know, this was just a regular bottling (ie, bottled in 1979) but was then held in Grahams cellars for the next 20 years, in ideal maturing conditions.

If you've got one of these, I would think that it would still be on the young side. If you've got the chance to buy one, I would seriously consider it.

Good luck.

Alex

Alex-
Thanks for the information. I wasn't sure if this was a special bottling of selected lots from the vintage. There has been a recurring theme of bottle variation for the 77 Graham's and I was also wondering if that was resolved with the magnums. Still hoping someone has an actual tasting note for this comparing it to the 750's.
Paul

Paul

I think the only difference is the fancy wooden box it comes in and the label which (I think) says something about the Millenium.

A lot of wine producers did "Millenium Bottlings", particularly in large format, as a marketing ploy (am I too cynical???!) to get people to buy their products to drink when the clock struck 12 on the 31st December 1999. I can understand champagne companies doing it, but with the exception of port enthusiasts like us (who would, if anything, be drinking something old and very special at the start of the new millenium), who would be drinking port at the stroke of midnight?

Peter

This bottle was the last great port deal available in Ontario, about 5 years ago. It was originally sold for CAD$299, I got mine on sale for CAD$209. I should have bought more than one but five years ago I was still buying "only a few bottles to lay down for the future"

Paul/Peter,

Whatever is says on the label, the decision by Graham's to put this wine in a Magnum happened in 1979. The notion that bottle variation could have been "sorted" for these Magnums doesn't really make sense as they were bottled at exactly the same time as the 750ml bottles. No one could really have known there was bottle variation until a few years later as the wine matured.

What may be more likely is that Graham's bottled more than the average number of Mags that year because it was the "Silver Jubilee Year" - Queen Elizabeth II's 25th year on the throne. A few Shippers labelled 1977 as Silver Jubilee Vintage, presumably hoping that royal supporters would buy it to commemorate the event. The only problem was, as is always the case with VP, the year of the occassion marked on these special labels was already 2 years in the past before the wine hit the market. By that time no one really cared too much about it. If this was the case, the Millenium may have turned out to be a good opportunity for Graham's to offload this surplus stock on large format bottles.

Just a hunch - perhaps one of the Symingtons could comment on whether or not it's close to the truth

Derek

Thank you for the advice on bottle variation. I haven’t like the G77s I’ve tried; maybe that’s why. Does anyone know whether the variation is intra-case or only inter-case? (I’m hoping for the former.)

Julian

I've tried three GC77 bottles from the same case. Two were corked and quite spoiled, one was gorgeous. On this empirical sample of one, it seems that the problem is intra-case.

Alex

bridgema wrote:Julian

I've tried three GC77 bottles from the same case. Two were corked and quite spoiled, one was gorgeous. On this empirical sample of one, it seems that the problem is intra-case.

Alex

Agreed.

I can't see how it could be anything other that intra-case unless a single case had an unfortunate collection of corks.

The source of corking happens on the tree, not in the bottle. To be specific, it depends on how close the cork came from the foot of the tree, where TCA is a natural substance in the wood.

The chance of the same cork from the same tainted source ending up 12 times in the same case is simply bad luck. It s nothing to do wth the case. Inter-case = extremely bad luck, not something that could be considered an annomoly within a particular vintage.

I can't thi nk of an occassion where I have heard of a corked case

Derek

Had a GC '77 last night with fellow FTLOP'er Frank Tota and it was not corked

Post a note in a bit....still recovering

Just to check that I’m not more confused than usual, what is “GC”? The original question was about Graham’s, and I usually use GC for Gould Campbell. In other words, have we changed subject?