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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.

Provenance - the first of two bottles purchased from the Bordeaux Index broking list in August 2021. Bottles look absolutely fine apart from missing their front labels.

Young fruity and aromatic port. A little hollow on the palate, however. Possibly improving with more air. In this company, too young.

G94: dark dark red, 90% opaque. Light, hollow mid-palate; dark plum fruit, ending pleasingly dark-fruited and sweet. But junior to what it should be.

Graham 1994, a bottle which had lost its front label but whose identity was confirmed by both the back label and the cork. Deep red in colour with a medium rim. Big on the nose, showing fruit salad chews and canned cherry; big, green and herbaceous overtones lying above the fruit. Fragrant and sweet on the nose and palate with the fruit being ripe and full of fine tannins on the palate, a wine which is truly delicious with its dark chocolate and black cherry. Youthful but with some added complexity from its years in the bottle which add to the fruit to give a complexity that yields a delicious mouthful of wine. Yum! 93/100. Opened and decanted at 13.30, returned to the bottle at 16.30, poured at 17.00 and tasted at 19.55.

G94. Medium dark garnet. Nicely complex nose combining red and purple fruits with hints of green that isn't quite mint but comes from that direction. Big, fruity palate full of ripe purple berries and some black cherry. Possibly a hint of chocolate. Only just barely starting to enter maturity at 30 years old! 95 points.

85% opacity, deep dark dull red. Fresh bramble on the nose. Lively fruit, jammy blackberry, concentrated and chewy.