1977 Graham

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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Alex M
Quinta do Noval LBV
Posts: 230
Joined: 11:14 Tue 12 May 2009

1977 Graham

Post by Alex M »

One of two bottles purchased from Sworders this week. Fill level was just below neck. The bottle had been stood for 12 hours prior to an 8 hour decant.
On removing the foil there appeared to be what looked like sand around the cork. The cork crumbled on extraction.

It is a dark red, perhaps similar to something from the early 1990's. It tasted strongly of eucalyptus and hints of mint and improved drastically over the course of the 8 hour decant. If anything, I feel it could do with slightly longer. I'm honestly not sure where this port is going but I feel it has at least another 10 years to make up it's mind.

90 points for now.

Luckily I have enough left in the decanter to try tonight.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14880
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 1977 Graham

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

You were lucky! The "sand" is probably cork crumbs, which is evidence of cork weevil (aka woodworm) having attached the cork. If it had got to the wine it would have given it that horrible flavour we were talking about at the Christmas offline.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Alex M
Quinta do Noval LBV
Posts: 230
Joined: 11:14 Tue 12 May 2009

Re: 1977 Graham

Post by Alex M »

Ahhh! I must of been rather lucky! The wine improved with more time in the decanter and I would assess a 12 hour decant is about right. Is the presence of cork weevil in one bottle indicative of it being in others from a similar stash?
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
Posts: 4172
Joined: 22:27 Wed 09 Jul 2008
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: 1977 Graham

Post by Glenn E. »

Alex M wrote: 11:05 Sun 17 Mar 2019 Is the presence of cork weevil in one bottle indicative of it being in others from a similar stash?
Not necessarily, even if this bottle came from an intact case. Especially in the US, a "case" of Port is likely an amalgamation of bottles from multiple sources, so there's little to actually tie one bottle to another. In the UK where actual OWC are more common there's slightly more to it, but it's still not enough to worry about in my opinion.
Glenn Elliott
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