- Review of the events as a whole;
- 1942 Graham;
- 1955 Graham;
- 1960 Graham;
- 1963 Graham;
- 1965 Graham Malvedos;
- 1966 Graham;
- 1968 Graham Malvedos;
- 1970 Graham;
- 1975 Graham;
- 1976 Graham Malvedos;
- 1977 Graham;
- 1978 Graham;
- 1979 Graham Malvedos (Magnum);
- 1980 Graham;
- 1983 Graham;
- 1984 Graham Malvedos;
- 1985 Graham Crusted;
- 1985 Graham;
- 1987 Graham Malvedos;
- 1990 Graham Malvedos;
- 1991 Graham;
- 1994 Graham;
- Planning and arrangements;
- Placemats.
13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Links for a tasting of Graham's and Graham's Malvedos at the Bunghole on Tuesday 13 November 2012.
Rob C.
- Axel P
- Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
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Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Thanks, Rob. This was a fantastic event. Great Ports with great people. Every mile airtravel worthy going to London and see you all.
best
Axel
best
Axel
worldofport.com
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Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
An excellent evening, with good company and some lovely ports. Alas the Bung Hole was slightly off form, in that they were a hundred glasses light, confounding our planning. But we coped, and very well.
I will post pictures when I find the camera wire.
I will post pictures when I find the camera wire.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Observe that the 1979 magnum had a new cork.
- Axel P
- Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
- Posts: 2028
- Joined: 08:09 Wed 12 Sep 2007
- Location: Langenfeld, near Cologne, Germany
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Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Thanks for the pics, Jdaw
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Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
I failed to photograph the oldest bottles. If somebody else did, please post.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
I just would like to say that this was a fantastic event. By and large the older ports showed very well indeed, to the point of making me wonder if the younger vintages will ever scale those heights. A big thank you to Rob for organising such a definitive tasting and thanks to everyone else for the bonhomie. I feel that I have a grasp now of the Graham house style but no doubt I would be completely clueless once again should I come across one blind.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Thanks to everyone who came and contributed both to the ports and atmosphere, and in particular to THRA for opening up a magnificent 1942, to Axel for flying over for the event, and to AHB and DRT for taking charge of the set-up and glasses fiasco!
Thankfully the older ports (in my opinion) all showed well, some spectacularly, and outside the run-away WOTN (1942), there were 5 or 6 wines that did well in the voting (though a surprising lack of consistency across the table). Will post voting sheet over the next couple of days.
A few takeaways for me:
- it was obvious from the voting breakdown that we all like old ports. But i find it is then quite hard to fully appreciate good 80s ports, which can seem quite backward/inelegant by comparison....
- ...particularly when trying to get through 22 ports in 4 hours!
- it was a nice surprise to see G77 drinking so well. G91 was the other surprise of the night for me - drinking very nicely now (though probably indicating that this is not a blockbuster).
- GM87 is a very good port, and - alongside the 80, 83 and 85 - surely makes Graham the stand-out performer of the 80s. It will be interesting to test this in 15-20 years
- 66 is just a great vintage! Pity there's so little around
- G94 is one to leave alone for the moment. But at £350ib, a smart buy for the future.
Thankfully the older ports (in my opinion) all showed well, some spectacularly, and outside the run-away WOTN (1942), there were 5 or 6 wines that did well in the voting (though a surprising lack of consistency across the table). Will post voting sheet over the next couple of days.
A few takeaways for me:
- it was obvious from the voting breakdown that we all like old ports. But i find it is then quite hard to fully appreciate good 80s ports, which can seem quite backward/inelegant by comparison....
- ...particularly when trying to get through 22 ports in 4 hours!
- it was a nice surprise to see G77 drinking so well. G91 was the other surprise of the night for me - drinking very nicely now (though probably indicating that this is not a blockbuster).
- GM87 is a very good port, and - alongside the 80, 83 and 85 - surely makes Graham the stand-out performer of the 80s. It will be interesting to test this in 15-20 years
- 66 is just a great vintage! Pity there's so little around
- G94 is one to leave alone for the moment. But at £350ib, a smart buy for the future.
Rob C.
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- Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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- Location: Near Cambridge, UK
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Thank you Rob and all for organising an excellent evening. I agree with most of Rob's points above, finding the (expected) consistency across the range of the Grahams VP vintages; that might also explain the spread of votes, given the consistency.
I found the 42 superb (thank you to those who supplied it), while the 55 was 'only' equally as good as the 63/66/70/77 for me (interesting comparison to WvF where 55s ruled over the 60s and 70s, though only because the 55 [esp Warre] was so good, not due to any fault or poorness to 60s/70s).
One extra point from my notes; pre-90, the quality of the Malvedos single-quintas seemed to be noticeably poorer than the declared VPs (which makes sense, but I was surprised it was so marked) while from 90+ the SQ seems much improved.
I found the 42 superb (thank you to those who supplied it), while the 55 was 'only' equally as good as the 63/66/70/77 for me (interesting comparison to WvF where 55s ruled over the 60s and 70s, though only because the 55 [esp Warre] was so good, not due to any fault or poorness to 60s/70s).
One extra point from my notes; pre-90, the quality of the Malvedos single-quintas seemed to be noticeably poorer than the declared VPs (which makes sense, but I was surprised it was so marked) while from 90+ the SQ seems much improved.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
Are you certain you meant 90+? I don't recall having one.PhilW wrote:One extra point from my notes; pre-90, the quality of the Malvedos single-quintas seemed to be noticeably poorer than the declared VPs (which makes sense, but I was surprised it was so marked) while from 90+ the SQ seems much improved.
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- Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
I did mean 90+. The only 90+ Malvedos at this tasting was 90, which along with 87 (which I agree should probably have been declared) seemed to me to be miles ahead of the others. I've also previously noted 95 as "ok" and 99 as "good, though immature", hence the overall impression that the single-quinta Malvedos seems to have upped its game from ~90+ (or maybe 87+, but I've not tried 88/89).griff wrote:Are you certain you meant 90+? I don't recall having one.PhilW wrote:One extra point from my notes; pre-90, the quality of the Malvedos single-quintas seemed to be noticeably poorer than the declared VPs (which makes sense, but I was surprised it was so marked) while from 90+ the SQ seems much improved.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
I see. You have supplemented your notes I also mistook '90+' to mean greater than as opposed to greater than or equal toPhilW wrote:I did mean 90+. The only 90+ Malvedos at this tasting was 90, which along with 87 (which I agree should probably have been declared) seemed to me to be miles ahead of the others. I've also previously noted 95 as "ok" and 99 as "good, though immature", hence the overall impression that the single-quinta Malvedos seems to have upped its game from ~90+ (or maybe 87+, but I've not tried 88/89).griff wrote:Are you certain you meant 90+? I don't recall having one.PhilW wrote:One extra point from my notes; pre-90, the quality of the Malvedos single-quintas seemed to be noticeably poorer than the declared VPs (which makes sense, but I was surprised it was so marked) while from 90+ the SQ seems much improved.
But I must profess to not seeing the vast gulf. I rather liked the 65.
Re: 13 November 2012 - A Smattering of Graham and Malvedos
A big thank you to Rob for organising this event and allowing me to join at the deep end for my first port tasting experience. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and as well as being my first proper foray into Grahams I probably quadrupled the number of bottles of vintage port that I've tasted However, I feel that more training may be in order before I can be vaguely productive the following morning.
My WOTN points were '42 - 3, '55 and '66 - 1.5 each (with the '83 next behind).
My WOTN points were '42 - 3, '55 and '66 - 1.5 each (with the '83 next behind).