For The Love Of Port

Drank from 375ml bottle bought at online auction. Very tawny in appearance upon decanting, a dark rose/ruby color. I was a little worried...

+1.25 hours -- red fruits mostly cherry, some heat. Very round tannins, velvety in the mouth.

+2.25 -- this starting to get very nice. Thick on the tongue, cherry and other red fruits, not much heat anymore.

+3.25 -- heat is back and still a little distracting, cherry and strawberries

+4 hours -- this is finally hitting it's stride, heat has dissapated again, velvety, cherries and strawberries, some mild chocolate notes creeping in, maple syrup.

Overall, bit of a disappointment. Enjoyable but nothing special. Maybe I don't like the Graham's style??? Or perhaps since this was from a 375mL it is showing that most bottles have hit their peek and are on the decline????

Gave this a 89 points

Robert,

The '77 Graham's has always been a controversial wine and through much of its youth, was out of synch and riddled with unsettled aguardente. Over the past several years it finally seems to be coming into its own and the balance is considerably better than ever. This is a Port with a positive upside now and from the sounds of your 375 ml bottle ... possibly one with poor storage and more than likely ... along the way, it was not kept in a temperature controlled environment for an extended period of time.

You could be right, Roy. I haven't had vintage port in a while but I am right now enjoying a 1991 Warre's. The difference is startling, so much so that I do suspect that there might have been a storage problem. It's hard to tell what you are getting when you buy wine at auction, but it's the only way I can try older vintages. I've been stocking up and storing my own recently released VP, but it will obviously be a long time before I can enjoy them.

Not one of Graham's best vintages yet can be a decent value at the right price. A decent port, but when you think of how grand '77 is suppose to be (as an overall vintage) it falls short.

I feel like I need to find a better bottle of this now so I can form an opinion about this controversial wine