2000 Grahams Late Bottled Vintage
Posted: 14:36 Thu 22 Nov 2007
Well, this just goes to show how little I really know about Port. This was served on 22/11/07 on board a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong at 32,000 feet so I guess that I can blame the altitude. Having tasted this, I was certain it was the Grahams 2000 Vintage Port and the stewardess had to show me the bottle to convince me otherwise. Deep, inky black colour with a dark purple rim, very youthful. Nose very closed, toffee predominantly but lots of work brings out some blackcurrant. Smooth, silky and dry entry but fruit hiding in the background. Once you let the mid-palate come through there is just an ever-growing wall of fruit (damsons, blackcurrants and morello cherry) with a pleasant but very noticeable tannic and acidic core that fades away again to reveal yet more fruit just before you swallow. Great complexity. When you do swallow, the aftertaste starts a little too emptily, but develops into a cheek tingling black cherry and dark chocolate length that goes on for a very long time. Extremely impressive and a very welcome surprise. Absolutely delicious and even as a filtered LBV, I think this will be better in 5 years time. Tuck some away and see but the full vintage must be really impressive if this is the LBV. (From a half bottle.)