N/V Graham's Six Grapes Old Vines Special Edition

[Glenn E.]

From day 1 of the 1985 horizontal, 24-25 Jan 2015, Holiday Inn Issaquah. All Ports were tasted blind. Unless otherwise noted, Ports were decanted for ~4 hours the morning of the tasting. The ones that I decanted received ~8 hours of decant overnight and were then stoppered for another ~6 hours until the tasting.

N/V Graham's Six Grapes Old Vines Special Edition
opened at the start of Day 1, tasted at the end.

Color: Intensely purple and dark. Slightly toward the bluer end of the purple spectrum when compared directly to the regular Six Grapes, but without the direct comparison it probably wouldn't have been noticeable.

Nose: Lodgey and grapey, jubilant, energetic. Slightly soapy as well.

Palate: Juicy, grapey, and tannic. Slightly brighter than the standard Six Grapes; possibly a touch more acidity? Somewhat more blueberry notes, but also some more tart notes so possibly black currant. Slightly stemmy.

Score: 92 points. To be perfectly honest, the differences between the standard Six Grapes and this Old Vines Special Edition were very minor. If I hadn't known what was in the two glasses I might not have noticed the differences at all, though this was at the end of a long day of tasting so my palate was pretty fatigued. Knowing that there was a difference to be found I was able to guess which one was which, but it wasn't as clear to me as it was to some others. Many people were guessing a 2012 SQVP or 2013 cask sample for the Old Vines Special Edition. I didn't think either bottle was up to that level, but both were excellent. It's not good QPR at $40, though. You'd be better off with an LBV for $25-$30 or an actual SQVP for $40.