Two cases of Graham's 1970 vintage port
Posted: 13:29 Thu 25 Nov 2021
Twenty or so years ago, while visiting my uncle – who had just become aware of my love of wine – I was asked to blind taste the port he was serving. I had heard that he’d bought a whole pipe in the 70s, so I had a good steer (though he didn’t know that) and, after some savouring, told him it tasted like Taylor’s or Graham’s, and was most probably from 1970 or 1975.
The correct answer turned out to be Graham’s 1970 and, after mumbling something about “a misspent youth”, he was utterly delighted. Not one of his three wine buff sons drinks port, and he had finally found someone who really appreciated his treasure.
Since that fateful day he has kindly passed bottles of this glorious stuff my way at every opportunity, a couple of dozen by now, all of which I’ve drunk. Most had no labels, but every single one was utterly delicious and regularly engendered a stunned silence of appreciation when served to friends who know what they’re drinking or just had a great palate.
1970 was the first vintage produced after Graham’s was bought by the Symington family, who made a special effort to excel that year. They now consider it one of the best ports they ever produced and serve it at Asian wine events as an example of how well port ages.
In an act of touching generosity, my uncle has now passed on a handful of cases to me, too many for me to consume, and I am looking to sell two of them, separately or together.
They are currently stored at Octavian, where they have been for the last 9 years – prior to that in my uncle’s cellar - in appropriate wine cases, but not the original cases. All duty has been paid on them.
Octavian have just provided me with photographs of both cases, and case 1 has all labels largely intact, while case two has no labels. I'm not sure why this is but, having had mostly no-label bottles from this lot, I can unhesitatingly vouch for the quality of their contents.
Berry Brothers currently have just one case of Graham’s 1970 duty paid going for £1950.00. I would ideally like to sell these for £1500.00 each.
If anyone is interested in one or both of them, or has any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
The correct answer turned out to be Graham’s 1970 and, after mumbling something about “a misspent youth”, he was utterly delighted. Not one of his three wine buff sons drinks port, and he had finally found someone who really appreciated his treasure.
Since that fateful day he has kindly passed bottles of this glorious stuff my way at every opportunity, a couple of dozen by now, all of which I’ve drunk. Most had no labels, but every single one was utterly delicious and regularly engendered a stunned silence of appreciation when served to friends who know what they’re drinking or just had a great palate.
1970 was the first vintage produced after Graham’s was bought by the Symington family, who made a special effort to excel that year. They now consider it one of the best ports they ever produced and serve it at Asian wine events as an example of how well port ages.
In an act of touching generosity, my uncle has now passed on a handful of cases to me, too many for me to consume, and I am looking to sell two of them, separately or together.
They are currently stored at Octavian, where they have been for the last 9 years – prior to that in my uncle’s cellar - in appropriate wine cases, but not the original cases. All duty has been paid on them.
Octavian have just provided me with photographs of both cases, and case 1 has all labels largely intact, while case two has no labels. I'm not sure why this is but, having had mostly no-label bottles from this lot, I can unhesitatingly vouch for the quality of their contents.
Berry Brothers currently have just one case of Graham’s 1970 duty paid going for £1950.00. I would ideally like to sell these for £1500.00 each.
If anyone is interested in one or both of them, or has any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
- Case 1
- Case-1.jpeg (460.56 KiB) Viewed 4814 times
- Case 2
- Case-2.jpeg (448.75 KiB) Viewed 4814 times
and likewise.