For The Love Of Port

Hello,

Has anyone had any experience drinking/tasting a Graham's '63 bottled by Whitwham? I wasn't able to gather much information on Whitwham's other than that at one time this British company bottled vinatge port as well as other fine wines. They also re-corked fine wines as well.

My question is more about the quality of their bottlings versus who Whitwhams is now or what they do in the present day. How do they compare to other UK bottlers like Berry Bros, Averys or Justerini and Brooks?

Premier Cru has some Whitwham bottled '63 Grahams available for $269.99 which is a nice price. '63 Graham's is of my all time favorite vintage ports.

Best regards,

Jeffrey Karp

I bought 4 bottles of Grahams 1963 (Whitwam bottled) in ? 1970 from their Altrincham (cheshire, UK) cellars & to the best of my knowledge the last bottle was drunk after Christmas dinner, December 1999.
I have two tasting notes on the whitwams bottled ports above. a. april 1994 .medium deep red brown,fruity nose ,sweet chocolaty middle-- spirity ,impressively powerful length. b. christmas 1999. colour fading ,tawny/faint red ,delicious,
sweet chocolate,a slight ginger edge a lovely bottle.Not the most reliable time to take tasting notes after christmas dinner.
The Littler family ,father & son (Arthur & Tim ) who owned Whitwams Ltd (est 1788) were a landmark in the market town of Altrincham near Manchester.They developed the fine wine buisness in the postwar peroid,from the old provision merchant buisness who had been patronised by the large Victorian houses of the wealthy landed familys in the surrounding cheshire countryside.
The company had extensive deep cellars under their main road premesis& also a bottling plant where up until the1970's they carried out their own bottling . I had some re bottling of 19cent. Vintage Madeira in 1999. Their bottling was reputed
to be superior to many port estate bottlings .
Both father & son Littler were good friends of mine & Tim took over the buisness after his fathers death modernising and
expanding sales to meet changing chalanges in the wine trade. He opened offices in London & Los Angles to expand his
fine wine dealings.
In 2002 his fine wine interests were aquired by Fine & Rare Wines Ltd, London of which he remains A Non Execc Director.
Tim has now developed his hobby of steam trains, into a high classTravel Buisness,GW.Travel Ltd building a luxury Trans-Siberian express as his first long distance touring steam locomotivein1996.
I hope this necessarily long diatribe answers some of your questions,incidently the wines on board the transsiberian express
are brilliant including the port.
jameskmills

James,

Welcome to What a great well informed first post I must say. Whitwhams isn't a company you hear much about these days in regards to their involvement with the Port trade. I think most people know them now for their Reserve King Pedro colheita from the mid 1800's that was released earlier this decade (or was it late 1990's, i can't recall?). Anyways, thanks for the info and glad to see the Siberian Epress is one you can take by choice now

Welcome Jeffrey,
I can say that I recently bought some 1966 Whitwham's bottled ports and they appear to be in excelent shape. Better than the Oporto bottled version that I have.
-Dave-

James, Welcome aboard! Your personal insight and connection with the former Whitwam principles comes as a welcomed surprise to my simple post. Your tasting notes were wonderful and provided me with exactly the information was hoping to find! Thank you!

Dave and Andy, Thank you both very much for the follow-up to my post.

I'll purchase a couple of bottles and post some first impressions (not necessarily tasting notes) upon receipt. Tasting notes will come later depending on the condition of the port. I'm still sitting on a Grant's St James bottling of Graham's '63 that I may have to open first depending on the condition of the Whitwam's.

TO be continued.

Best regards to all.

Jeffrey Karp

James,

Please do come back and visit as it would be great to have you sharing your knowledge with us. Thanks also to Jeff for a fine thread!