1970 Graham's and ???...

[Houston Porter]

I have a question regarding a bottle of 'Graham's 1970 Vintage' that we just opened and tasted.

We started a new tradition of opening up a bottle of Graham's 1970 on my birthday (I was born in 1970), after I tasted it for the first time last year and fell in love with it.)

This year, I purchased a bottle, but when I received it, it had no Selo, and low and behold, the label revealed that it was bottled by Whitwhams in England. From what little information I could find on Whitwhams, it appears that they were known for messing with their wines to enough of a degree that they are not a reliable label. I contact the seller, who agreed to deeply discount the bottle in exchange for me letting them know how it turned out when stacked up against an actual bottle of Graham's 1970 (with Selo), which I had quickly purchased to replace this bottle.

So, we open up the Graham's, and of course everything is fine. The cork came out in one piece and it clearly read "GRAHAMS VINTAGE 1970".

The big surprise came when we opened the Whitwhams bottle, which I expected to either have one of their corks (if they had their own), or a cork with nothing printed on it. This cork came out in two pieces, and much to our surprise, reads "FONSECA VINTAGE 1970 BOTTLED IN 1972".

Just for some more context, both corks show the same amount of age and the wine end was roughly the same color, both immediately after de-corking, and after the cork dried, when the wine end took on a dark purple powdery appearance. The Graham's had almost no sediment, while the "Fon-fake-a", as my crew started calling it, had quite a bit. They were both roughly the same color at decanting and the next morning were again roughly the same color (both much darker purple than the night before.) By and large, the table preferred the Graham's at first, but after a few hours more in the decanter, the group was split and this morning (after about 12-14 hours since decanting) was still split.

I can't really see a good reason why someone would de-Selo a Fonseca 1970 to fake a Graham's 1970 given they are roughly the same price now and according to Wine Spectator, the Fonseca rates higher than the Graham's. I have no idea what they sold for back in the 1970's, so maybe Graham's sold for more, but I would doubt by enough to warrant doing this. Another guess is that the the Fon-fake-a was some variant of the Graham's 1970 (as in, there's no way to tell how long it may have stayed in the barrel prior to bottling in England) and they simply corked it with a used Fonseca 1970 cork, but this too seems unlikely for a couple reasons. First, I'm guessing port lodges don't hand out their vintage corks. Second, it seems like a lot of work to track down those corks used just to cork bottles of something that has similar value.

I had always wanted to taste a vintage bottled in England against its Portuguese counterpart but didn't realize it would involve this much mystery.

Anyone know, or have any ideas as to what happened here?

[Moses Botbol]

I'd take a '70 Fonseca or a '70 Graham any day of the week. Was the Whitwhams bottle an original label? The only ports of theirs under question as some of the old colheitas. The colheitas are certainly old, but are they "as old" as they say or were the pipes used freshened up with something younger. Having tasted and own some of these bottles, I'd say the latter... Pipes most likely were freshened up at some point. No one says that they aren't fantastic colheitas in their own right.

My guess is they ran out of Grahams corks and used Fonseca instead. Either that or they mislabeled the bottle which seems less likely to me. Not sure why I would give that one less merit?

[Glenn E.]

Whitwham's is an English bottler, and bottled all kinds of Port. While I've never heard of what you describe, it's certainly possible and could very easily be a simple switch-up during bottling. Back in those days the Port was shipped to England in cask and bottled by Whitwham's (or Army & Navy, or Grant's of St. James, or Berry Brothers, or any of the other English bottlers). I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they had corks for any number of 1970 VPs on hand at that time.

I'd heard only recently that Whitwham's had a reputation, and it surprised me because I've had several Whitwham's bottlings and they were all superb.

[Houston Porter]

Whitwham's is an English bottler, and bottled all kinds of Port. While I've never heard of what you describe, it's certainly possible and could very easily be a simple switch-up during bottling. Back in those days the Port was shipped to England in cask and bottled by Whitwham's (or Army & Navy, or Grant's of St. James, or Berry Brothers, or any of the other English bottlers). I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they had corks for any number of 1970 VPs on hand at that time.

I'd heard only recently that Whitwham's had a reputation, and it surprised me because I've had several Whitwham's bottlings and they were all superb.

So did the English bottlers get vintage appropriate corks from the port lodges? I guess I just assumed that Graham's and Fonseca wouldn't let the corks out of their sight, but could be wrong.
(The Whitwham's port was definitely not as complex as the Graham's, but was still quite good. )

[Phil W]

I've had several Whitwham's without incident or issue (much more common in UK than US). The one trait I have noticed is that many of their (older) bottles have been recorked (unlikely in your case, the bottle is not old enough to have needed that).

BTW, the lack of selo is not an issue; selos are only used on Portuguese-bottled port (which is all port from 1974 onward), so you would not expect them on English-bottled (pre-1974) port.

[Al B.]

Whitwhams have been very active in the secondary market and it would be no surprise to me if they had bought a parcel of unlabelled bottles which they bought in good faith having been told they were 1970 Graham - which they then labelled with their own labels as Graham 1970.

Only now are you finding that the bottles were actually 1970 Fonseca.

I think this is more likely than Whitwhams carried out the original bottling but used the wrong corks.

[Eric Menchen]

So did the English bottlers get vintage appropriate corks from the port lodges? I guess I just assumed that Graham's and Fonseca wouldn't let the corks out of their sight, but could be wrong.

I have heard that the lodges sometimes supplied labels, and I think corks as well. I give mis-corked vs. mis-labeled equal odds.

[Houston Porter]

BTW, the lack of selo is not an issue; selos are only used on Portuguese-bottled port (which is all port from 1974 onward), so you would not expect them on English-bottled (pre-1974) port.

I'm still learning, but the lack of selo was the first red flag to me. If I have these two bottles sitting side by side, I know that the Grahams is Grahams, and was bottled in 1972 with a vintage from 1970. (And the cork should confirm this.) But the Whitwhams is a wild card, kind of specifically because it has no selo. I understand that nothing bottled outside Portugal is going to have a selo, but because the Portuguese bottlings are a known entity, and those bottled elsewhere aren't, isn't that kind of why we look for the selo if we want to "guarantee" what we are getting?

I understand that those too could be counterfeited, but imagine it's usually not worth the trouble, where as mixing in a bit of younger port while bottling something older, or bottling something completely different, when there is no selo involved (because it's not being done at the home facility) certainly is more doable, and from what I've read, is exactly what happened sometimes with non-Portuguese bottlings. In fact, of all the bottles I've ever opened, this is the first English bottling and first non-selo and sure enough, it does not appear to be what they claim it is on the label.

(I hope my tone doesn't come across as argumentative - I'm simply trying to get educated on this stuff and honestly, and completely fascinated by this and appreciate all I'm learning from all you more experienced port drinkers.)

[Houston Porter]

Whitwhams have been very active in the secondary market and it would be no surprise to me if they had bought a parcel of unlabelled bottles which they bought in good faith having been told they were 1970 Graham - which they then labelled with their own labels as Graham 1970.

Only now are you finding that the bottles were actually 1970 Fonseca.

I think this is more likely than Whitwhams carried out the original bottling but used the wrong corks.

Interesting... So, another port merchant in England could have bottled 1970 Fonseca, not labeled it, and then either sold it to a middleman who ended up selling it to Whitwhams as Grahams, or they themselves forgot what it was and then sold it Whitwhams? It seems odd that they would bottle it and not immediately put labels on it, but as you can tell, I know virtually nothing about how things work with barrel importers in England.

[Houston Porter]

I have heard that the lodges sometimes supplied labels, and I think corks as well. I give mis-corked vs. mis-labeled equal odds.

I'm going to see if I can follow up with Fonseca to find out what the chances of this are. This is absolutely fascinating. I'm tempted to take my remaining bottle of Whitwhams with me to Porto next trip and see if I can't get someone from Graham's and Fonseca to taste it for me to see what they think.

Can I assume that Whitwhams is no more and that we don't know anyone from the old days who could shed light on this?

[Moses Botbol]

Interesting... So, another port merchant in England could have bottled 1970 Fonseca, not labeled it, and then either sold it to a middleman who ended up selling it to Whitwhams as Grahams, or they themselves forgot what it was and then sold it Whitwhams?

Whitwhams bottled the port from pipes they imported from Portugal. Bottles are often left unlabeled until they are sold which is where the mix up may've happened.

I'll trade you your Whitwham's '70 port for a legit '70 Grahams is you want.

[Eric Menchen]

It seems odd that they would bottle it and not immediately put labels on it, but as you can tell, I know virtually nothing about how things work with barrel importers in England.

Echoing what Moses said, bottles are often left unlabeled when filled. This is the case in the lodges in Portugal as well. Paper rots, adhesive dries out and fails, labels get stained ... and maybe even ownership or labeling laws change ten or fifty years after you fill the bottle. So you put the (hopefully) correct label on the bottle when you are ready to sell it.

[Houston Porter]

Ah, I see. Thanks for all the info. This is fascinating, and now I want to try more English bottled ports.

[Houston Porter]

I'll trade you your Whitwham's '70 port for a legit '70 Grahams is you want.

I will definitely consider that.

[Glenn E.]

Ah, I see. Thanks for all the info. This is fascinating, and now I want to try more English bottled ports.

There are a few English bottlers who are generally better than Oporto bottled, so definitely do explore some!

[Houston Porter]

Ah, I see. Thanks for all the info. This is fascinating, and now I want to try more English bottled ports.

There are a few English bottlers who are generally better than Oporto bottled, so definitely do explore some!

Now that I'm venturing into Vintages, I'm definitely curious. (I always avoided them before because 1) I love tawnies, and 2) I love the price of tawnies...but that damn Graham's Vintage 1970 did me in...)
And when I find something like a Taylor's LBV 2011 to be so good, it makes me wonder what some of those classic vintages might taste like if they received a bit more barrel time while sitting in England waiting to be bottled.

[Al B.]

Keep an eye out for Taylor Vargellas 1967. You can find this bottled in Oporto in 1969 but also bottled in England in 1969 and in 1970.

Could make an interesting tasting.

[Houston Porter]

Keep an eye out for Taylor Vargellas 1967. You can find this bottled in Oporto in 1969 but also bottled in England in 1969 and in 1970.

Could make an interesting tasting.

I definitely will. I've liked the other Vargellas's I've had.

[Shawn Denkler]

Whitwhams did sell some very old Colheitas that were questionable regarding the vintage. But they are not the only ones to have bottled very old port barrels with a questionable vintage. At least the ports were very good.

But Whitwhams got a bad reputation for recorking older vintage ports and topping them up with other port. Even worse, some of the ports they topped up were lower fills in bad condition. These were not good ports but they were sold for the prices of the port in good condition. Reputable merchants would not resell those. I will never buy a Whitwhams recorked bottle.

The 1970 Graham that turned out to have a 1970 Fonseca cork is an unintended mistake. Much of the port bottled was not labeled until sold so it would be very easy to mix it up on occasion. Or the wrong cork could have been used which would be easy to do in a bottling area that bottles multiple wines.

I have seen the cork not matching the label on several occasions when ports are opened. When I used to import port for my wine shop a fair amount of it was unlabeled or the labels would have deteriorated enough that they would need to be relabeled. I was very careful about labeling it. I did import port and have no idea what the port was. I had the terrible duty of opening it to see the cork then drinking it.