20 Year Old Tawny Port by Graham's

[Roy Hersh]

While celebrating our daughter's 4th birthday, we took a friend up on their suggestion to stop into the Grand California Hotel (at Disneyland) for their great kids storytelling time. Next door to this beautifully appointed room, replete with fireplace and many young kids with parents, there was a bar area off of the main lobby that had a terrific wine list by the glass. I was very skeptical of the 1970 Dow @ $38 per glass (I paid less for the majority of my bottles) and went with:

Graham's 20 year old Tawny Port - This reminded me of why I rarely buy Port of any kind at a restaurant or bar. It was not a bad bottle of Port and there was certainly LOTS of business being transacted at this bar. But maybe because it is in sunny So CA that folks don't normally drink Ports. There were about 25 wines available by the glass here and plenty of winners. This was a $9.50 per glass (2 oz.) pour which given the venue did not seem that crazy. I could not really tell the color as the lighting was a bit dark in the story telling room, as it had been in the bar area too. The nose seemed just fine with a walnut essence and a bit of cherry pipe tobacco too. On the palate the flavors were of prune and praline with enough evolution that this showed like a 20 year old. But I could tell that this was not as fresh as it probably had been when the bottle was opened. I can only assume that there had been weeks of air time in the bottle since it was detectable as soon as I started to sip. My wife urged me to return it, but I didn't want to "get started" and the hassle was not worth it. I drank up, still mostly enjoyable but no where near what it should have been. I wonder how many folks get a glass like this and say to themselves: "this is it?" Anyway, I am sure I'll be having at least one more 20 year old before the month is up.

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