NV Graham Crusted 2000

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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AW77
Morgan 1991
Posts: 1113
Joined: 20:20 Wed 25 Sep 2013
Location: Cologne, Germany

NV Graham Crusted 2000

Post by AW77 »

D+0h: smells strongly of sweet currant, quite some deposit, D+3,5h: purple-red, 85% opacque, smells ‟minerally” and of a undefined muted fruit, which can be identified later as raspberry, there is also a little bit of eucalyptus in the background, mid-bodied, quite sweet (I had this wine last year and I remembered it to be medium-sweet, i.e. not that sweet), smooth in the mouth with hints of liquorice, in the aftertaste a nice acidity (not too much, i.e. well balanced) and a little bit of liquorice, quite long finish (at least 20 sec.), a good Crusted, but somehow a little bit dull. The bottle last year was much better and more elegant.
I wonder why: was a 3-4 hour decant too long (I don’t think so) or can even Crusted ports close down when they go from a youngish wine to a more mature one (something I don’t think either). So I’m at a loss. What do you experts around here think?
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
LGTrotter
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
Posts: 3707
Joined: 17:45 Fri 19 Oct 2012
Location: Somerset, UK

Re: NV Graham Crusted 2000

Post by LGTrotter »

Did you buy them at the same time? I often think that different bottling runs taste different. And then there is boring old bottle variation, I have been working my way through the last of some Dow crusted 97s and they all seem startlingly different from each other.

Or perhaps it was just you, what you were eating, how you were feeling, that sort of thing. This is a much overlooked reason for variation in my opinion.

I don't think 3 or 4 hours too long a decant time for this wine.
LGTrotter
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
Posts: 3707
Joined: 17:45 Fri 19 Oct 2012
Location: Somerset, UK

Re: NV Graham Crusted 2000

Post by LGTrotter »

Oh and I do think that crusted port behaves in much the same way as vintage in that it does open and close.
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AW77
Morgan 1991
Posts: 1113
Joined: 20:20 Wed 25 Sep 2013
Location: Cologne, Germany

Re: NV Graham Crusted 2000

Post by AW77 »

I bought the bottles at the same source. And my TN (I found my notes tonight) of the last bottle clearly state "medium-sweet" (as this was my first Graham Crusted I was surprised that it was not so sweet as Graham usually is). And there was pepper in the nose. No pepper in the nose this time. I don't think that a port gets sweeter while being closed. And that one's personal mood makes it taste sweeter. Perhaps it is due to bottle variation, as you suggested. I don't think that the blenders are that careful to be consistent with a Crusted as with a VP. If a very German analogy might be allowed: Crusted is like a sausage, only the butcher (blender) knows what's inside. Anyway, there is still a bottle of the 2000 Crusted left. I will report on that next year in January.

But your theory of Crusted behaving much in the same way was vintage in that it does open and close sounds sensible. After all, some ingredients of a Crusted might not have spend longer in cask than a VP, i.e. 2 years. If you take the Niepoort Crusted 2007 as an example. According to the tech sheet, this consists of wines from 2003 and 2005. So one part was not tamed by cask as the other might have been. Hence the volatility. But perhaps we should ask a wine-maker. Perhaps my theory is just nonsense.
The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt know thy Port
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