2024: May 14 - Graham

[jdaw1]

On Tuesday 14th May 2024, as arranged by Martin C., at the Boot & Flogger, some of the obvious suspects tasted a vertical of Graham.

Links:

• Review of the evening as a whole;
• Tasting notes:
  • 1942 Graham;
  • 1945 Graham;
  • 1948 Graham;
  • 1955 Graham;
  • 1960 Graham;
  • 1963 Graham;
  • 1966 Graham;
  • 1970 Graham;
  • 1975 Graham;
  • 1977 Graham;
  • 1980 Graham;
  • 1983 Graham;
  • 1985 Graham;
  • 1991 Graham;
  • 1994 Graham;
  • 1997 Graham;
  • 2000 Graham;
  • 2003 Graham;
• The placemats;
• Planning and arrangements.

[winesecretary]

Thank you to Martin for arranging. Thank you to everyone for providing such interesting wines. Several of them were new to me and happily almost all of those new to me were truly lovely.

[hadge]

please can we have the scores sheet posted here. thanks

[M.Charlton]

Score sheets:

[hadge]

thank you for this, very interesting the scores of the G60.

not surprised by the 83 for the younger than 80 scores, thought that the 97 might have done a little better.

[idj123]

A great night and perhaps the most consistently good vertical I have attended. Two bottles – the 63 and 70 were below par but on the other hand the 75 and 83 were the two best examples of these wines that I have drunk. The 97 is also going in the right direction.

[jdaw1]

That was fantastic. So many good Ports. even the few decisively less-good were still not bad. And the G48 was just magical.

Martin C.: thank you very much for arranging.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Being able to take part in a tasting like this one is a real privilege. Thank you Martin for taking on the challenge of organising it.

My highlight was the 1997. Probably the best bottle of 1997 from any producer that I have ever tasted. Perhaps I need to revisit my scepticism of this vintage...

[Glenn E.]

I'm finally home and catching up on notes and records.

This was a splendid evening! A vertical of Graham's Ports going all the way back to 1942?!? Fantastic.

Thank you, Martin, for organizing and for coordinating the date so that it would work with my vacation schedule.

I put my nickname at risk to say that this might have been the highlight tasting of the entire trip. The Symington 1966 vs 1970 held at Bomfim and hosted by Dominic does give it a run on the VP side, admittedly, but this one will be a core memory for a very long time.

The 1948 was spectacular. The 1945 was spectacular, just not quite as good. According to my notes I then had the 1942, 1966, 1983, 1985, 1994, and 2003 all essentially tied for 3rd. (Though I see that I gave the 1960 half a point above... there were so many good ones!)

I thought that the 1963, 1970, and 1985 all showed below potential, but that 1960 and 1975 both overperformed.

My scores ranged from 91 to 97, with the 91 going to the 1963. How often does something like that happen? My average score across 18 bottles was 93.55.