1957 Graham

[Alex Bridgeman]

Not in the book…

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Graham 1957: Dark ginger in colour, 20% opaque. Spice and dust on the nose with some dried ginger root. Sweet on the palate, no fruit but full of butterscotch and ginger. The acidity provides the backbone. Long, lingering humbug aftertaste. Although there is no fruit, this is a very pleasant VP in its tertiary phase and likely to hold for decades. 87/100.

[Glenn E.]

Whaaaaaat?

Neither in the book nor in my vertical. I must acquire!

[MigSU]

Not in the bible? Outrageous.

Just checked. There's a 1957 Graham's Malvedos, but not a general Graham's. 3rd edition needed!

[Glenn E.]

Garrafeira Nacional in Lisbon has one listed. I'm going to enquire about it to see if they have any further information, because the label is damaged so you can't actually see that it's a 1957. The last digit is destroyed, so that label could be a 1955. I'm hoping they can send me a picture of the capsule and that it will be stamped appropriately.

[DRT]

Not in the bible? Outrageous.

Just checked. There's a 1957 Graham's Malvedos, but not a general Graham's. 3rd edition needed!

My bet would be that it is the Graham's Malvedos (at that time a second label not a single quinta) that has been labelled Graham's for a particular market.

[Glenn E.]

Not in the bible? Outrageous.

Just checked. There's a 1957 Graham's Malvedos, but not a general Graham's. 3rd edition needed!

My bet would be that it is the Graham's Malvedos (at that time a second label not a single quinta) that has been labelled Graham's for a particular market.

We're in the process of finding out more. I've emailed back and forth with GN a couple of times now, and Alex is going to drop by the store and take a look at the bottle in person. If it all checks out, I plan to order it.

But yes, that's my suspicion as well. It's a mis-labeled Malvedos, or as you said one labeled as Graham's for a particular market.

[winesecretary]

A 1957 Graham horizontal might settle the matter of whether it’s the same as the Malvedos.

I am probably available that evening.

[Glenn E.]

Bottle has been ordered from Garrafeira Nacional. Thanks to Alex for the assist!

Sadly they had only 1 bottle or I would have purchased a second to bring to London for the vertical on May 14.

[Glenn E.]

The bottle has arrived and is in good condition. Unfortunately the label is not terribly useful as it is damaged and one can only read the '19' from the date. I emailed further questions regarding the validity of the bottle to Garrafeira Nacional and they (say that they) did some further investigation and can no longer stand behind its sale as a 1957 Graham Vintage Port, so they have offered me a full refund which I accepted. (Without the need to return the bottle.)

I intend to further investigate because as Alex's picture shows above, there are bottles in the wild that appear to be 1957 Graham Vintage Ports. I'm just not convinced that this bottle is one.

In addition to the possibility that it is a 1957 Malvedos, there's always also the chance that it is a 1955 Graham bottled in 1957 that someone, somewhere along the chain of custody mis-identified as a 1957 VP. It's one of those light-ish brown glass bottles, so if I were to remove the capsule I'm reasonably confident that I could read the cork using a strong flashlight. But I don't want to do that just yet... as much as possible I want to keep the bottle intact as sold.

I'll take some pictures to post here.

[Glenn E.]

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[Glenn E.]

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[Glenn E.]

I am unable to get my phone's camera to focus any better than this because the selo itself is so damaged that it looks blurry no matter what. I tried to get it to focus on the edge of the selo to no avail.

There's no back side to the selo visible as it has been torn off at some point.

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[Glenn E.]

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[Justin K]

Glenn,

Are there any markings or numericals on the bottom of the bottle?

[Glenn E.]

I hadn't noticed them before, but yes there are. Embossed into the glass is the number 374 and the letters 'RL'. Possibly 'RD" but I don't think so.

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[MigSU]

(Without the need to return the bottle.)

Heck of a deal.

[Andy Velebil]

Newer style Selo, post early 1970’s. Capsule looks like the ones used ~’77-ish to ~’80s. Or it’s older and was just labeled and released later. Either way, very good customer service from GN. .

[PhilW]

The older style label I've seen on bottles up to 1970 latest:


The newer style label I've seen on bottles as old as 1948, though infrequent (likely late release) and only starts to become more common from 1963, and typical post-1970:


By comparison, the old style label on Malvedos:


and newer:


and even newer:



In all cases for Grahams with the newer style label, the format is:
GRAHAM (in black)
<vintage> (in red)
VINTAGE
PORT
bottled in <year> (in red, smaller case)

and for Grahams Malvedos with newer (not even newer) style:
GRAHAM (in black)
MALVEDOS (in red)
<vintage> (in red)
VINTAGE PORT
(sometimes:) bottled in <year> (in red, smaller case)

Your bottle label appears to be:
GRAHAM (in black)
<vintage> (in red)
VINTAGE
PORT

i.e. no room for the word Malvedos, and no bottling year statement. The only other label which matches that format would be the one in AHBs image at the top of the thread, so I suspect it could well be a bottle from the same stash. Agree it's late release given both the label style and selo, assuming it really is G57/GM57. Will be interesting to see what the cork says when you open it.

[flash_uk]

Interestingly, the typeface is different on the labels in each of Alex’s, Glenn’s and Phil’s GM68 and G48.

Best seen by looking at the serif on the bottom of the H of Graham’s. On Alex’s pic, the serif is fat. On Glenn’s it is thin. On Phil’s G48 and GM68 it is thin with a curvature on the bottom of the serif.

Edit: and in fact Phil’s G48 and GM68 are different too. Best seen by looking at the top of the letter A in Graham’s.

[Glenn E.]

Your bottle label appears to be:
GRAHAM (in black)
<vintage> (in red)
VINTAGE
PORT

i.e. no room for the word Malvedos, and no bottling year statement. The only other label which matches that format would be the one in AHBs image at the top of the thread, so I suspect it could well be a bottle from the same stash. Agree it's late release given both the label style and selo, assuming it really is G57/GM57. Will be interesting to see what the cork says when you open it.

Agreed, that's my take on it as well. Alex's bottle at the top of the thread and my bottle could be from the same lot, but what that lot actually is remains a mystery to me. It seems like they must be some kind of late release since they use a more modern label, but who knows?

The lack of bottling date bothers me. I don't remember ever seeing Graham's labels without that detail, but I might just be forgetting.

Interestingly, the typeface is different on the labels in each of Alex’s, Glenn’s and Phil’s GM68 and G48.

Best seen by looking at the serif on the bottom of the H of Graham’s. On Alex’s pic, the serif is fat. On Glenn’s it is thin. On Phil’s G48 and GM68 it is thin with a curvature on the bottom of the serif.

Hmm... I would want to see a higher-resolution version of Alex's picture before coming to the conclusion that his and mine use different typefaces. It isn't obvious to my poor eyes that the bottom serif of the 'H' in Alex's picture isn't just some artifact of compression, or a trick that my eye is playing on me due to the size of the picture.

[flash_uk]

Interestingly, the typeface is different on the labels in each of Alex’s, Glenn’s and Phil’s GM68 and G48.

Best seen by looking at the serif on the bottom of the H of Graham’s. On Alex’s pic, the serif is fat. On Glenn’s it is thin. On Phil’s G48 and GM68 it is thin with a curvature on the bottom of the serif.

Hmm... I would want to see a higher-resolution version of Alex's picture before coming to the conclusion that his and mine use different typefaces. It isn't obvious to my poor eyes that the bottom serif of the 'H' in Alex's picture isn't just some artifact of compression, or a trick that my eye is playing on me due to the size of the picture.

Yes it could be a distortion - Alex’s pic is taken through glass which could be causing a magnification-type effect for some of the label. The top of the A of Graham seems consistent for both Alex and yours.

[Alex Bridgeman]

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This is the highest resolution I can post here.

But whatever the bottle is — you have a bargain!

[flash_uk]

IMG_6353.jpeg


This is the highest resolution I can post here.

But whatever the bottle is — you have a bargain!

That is much clearer. Typeface now looks just like Glenn's bottle.