ThePortForum.com

Hello friends,

I have a simple enquiry for you all.

For my 21st birthday I was given a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port.

What should I have done with it... ? Drunk it years ago..? Given that it is my BIG 50 in September should I save it or will it be aweful..

No doubt you will tell me it's naff and will take care of it's safe disposal.. lol lol

I don't know how good the 1979 is but Malvedos is a lovely second Port by Graham's. The 1987 that we had last year was absolutely beautiful and I can see no reason why an extra 8 years of age would put it onto a downhill slope too quickly. I say open it, decant it and enjoy it, it should be delicious.

Then write a tasting note.

I had a bottle of this a few months ago. My tasting note can be seen by clicking this link.

If you take a look at the Tasting Note Index you will see that I have also posted notes on the Malvedos 65 and 68.

In answer to your question, you should drink this on your 50th birthday and let us know what you think of it.

Welcome to TPF.

Derek

Sounds like a lovely port from Derek's description. I'd say drink it on your 50th and let us know what you thought about it.

I had the 1979 Malvedos for the first and last time in 1993. It was opened on board a boat on the Douro river moored on the Oporto bank and was shared with a couple of good friends we were holidaying with.

Although it's not a blockbuster port, combining the quality with the occasion turned it into one of those "epiphany experiences" that we all go through and was one of the events in my life that got me absolutely hooked on port.

Here's my tasting note:

Drunk at the end of our cruise holiday along the Douro. Elizabeth was pregnant so it was just me, Gwynn and Mary. The wine was close to its peak with good dark red fruit flavours well supported by a chocolately / tobacco undertone and aftertaste. A good wine spoilt slightly by a little too much unintegrated alcohol. Has a few years left before it will decline.

I think with another 29 years of gentle maturing development, this will be a lovely soft and elegant port - something really enjoyable. Hopefully you will be able to share it with some people you really care for when you open it and give it the attention it deserves. If you need any suggestions as to food or preparation before drinking it (please decant it - there will be a lot of sediment!) then you know where to ask!

You never know, maybe this will be an experience that will get you hooked on port and we'll see more of you. But please tell us what you think of the port when you try it, we'd love to know.

Alex

Smallthorne wrote:For my 21st birthday I was given a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port.

it is my BIG 50 in September

AHB wrote:I think with another 29 years of gentle maturing development, this will be a lovely soft and elegant port - something really enjoyable.

AHB's misreading of the initial question made me wonder if the maths are stacking up here. If Smallthorne is to be 50 in September 2008 and was given the bottle as a 21st birthday present he would have recieved it in 1979.

This can't be true as it couldn't have been bottled until 1981

have I missed something?

Derek

Good spot, Hercule!

Unless he was given a barrel sample!

The important word is 'for' his 21st birthday. It may have been given later, hell I'm always tardy with cards, meaning a bottle representing his 21st birthday.

Conky wrote:Good spot, Hercule!

Should I apply for a job in CID?

KillerB wrote:Unless he was given a barrel sample!

Unlikely.

KillerB wrote:The important word is 'for' his 21st birthday. It may have been given later, hell I'm always tardy with cards, meaning a bottle representing his 21st birthday.

Entirely possible. May have been given on the 23rd Birthday with a note saying "Sorry, forgot to give you something for your 21st back in '79 so I bought you this!"

The plot thickens. I think we need an answer, and perhaps will have to take the bottle into custody and sample it to make sure it is in fact a 1979 and not a 1981

Derek

Derek T wrote:AHB's misreading of the initial question made me wonder if the maths are stacking up here.

I'm sorry, what mis-reading of the initial question would that be?

To my mind, the maths stacks up beautifully:
born 1958
21st birthday in 1979
given a bottle of 1979 port for (but note the use of "for" and not "on") 21st birthday
celebrates 50 n.o. in 2008
opens bottle on 50th birthday, 29 years after the vintage

Doesn't that work?

Or did you just mean that I used the initial question as an excuse to ramble on for a bit?

Alex

AHB wrote: did you just mean that I used the initial question as an excuse to ramble on for a bit?

Yes.

AHB wrote:I think with another 29 years of gentle maturing development, this will be a lovely soft and elegant port

This sentence from your initial response is the one that reveals the mi-reading. You clearly thought that Smallthorne was currently 21 and would be keeping the bottle for "another 29 years" until he was 50, by which time he will, ironically, be 79

Derek

Derek T. wrote:

AHB wrote: did you just mean that I used the initial question as an excuse to ramble on for a bit?

Yes.

AHB wrote:I think with another 29 years of gentle maturing development, this will be a lovely soft and elegant port

This sentence from your initial response is the one that reveals the mi-reading. You clearly thought that Smallthorne was currently 21 and would be keeping the bottle for "another 29 years" until he was 50, by which time he will, ironically, be 79

Derek

That's not irony, that's coincidence - football pundits idea of irony, cue Motty-a-like:

"Ironically, he has put it into the net at the same end he did last time he played here".

I thought that AHB meant "another 29 years" after his TN, which would be in 2022, ironically not an important year at all other than Smallthorne being able to sing "When I'm 64".

Does it matter, and if it matters, does it matter that it matters?

Overtired and emotional wrote:Does it matter, and if it matters, does it matter that it matters?

Why would you think of asking that question on this Forum?