I recently acquired a variety of wines from unknown provenance and included in the bundle was a mag of 85 Graham’s Port with near base neck fill. I laid it down and it began actively seeping, which I monitored for a few weeks. Not appearing to slow down, I pulled the capsule off and took a look at the cork which was visibly shrunken away from the sides of the neck for most of its length. Puzzled, I did the only thing I could think of: I lit a beeswax candle and sealed off the top of the cork which has been successful at stopping seepage. I hoped to find a time this holiday season to open a mag of VP but no luck. I’m hesitant to open this since it would likely be only me drinking it. Provided the wine is still sound, how long might this drink well for? If it can endure a week of being open, I might actually be able to enjoy the whole bottle.
With that much active seepage and cork issues I’d recommend opening much sooner rather than later as it probably has already been exposed to a lot of air. lasting a week once you open it is the least of your worries at this point, but it probably won’t be significantly worse at the end of a week than it may be already.
What I do is decant into a half bottle and the rest in a decanter. I cork the half bottle and put into the fridge. I enjoy the decanter over the next day or two. Then I drink the half bottle a couple days later.
It was ready and lovely six years ago. I’d really bit the bullet and find a way to drink it asap.
Thanks all, I’ll pop it ASAP and treat it as suggested.
While it is lovely, this is one of the top 1985’s and from a well stored bottle this is still a baby and has several decades of life ahead of it. I last had this in October and it was stunning and to which I scored it 96 points.
However, as I mentioned, the cork issues listed have me worried this Magnum was pretty poorly stored for some time since the cork should not have shrunk away from the sides of the bottle. While Port is a bit more robust than dry wine, it isn’t indestructible as some people think. So glad to hear you plan to open it soon. And do let us know how it shows once you do open it.
Given that everything else I’ve opened from the lot has been quite fresh, I’m guessing this single bottle was stored upright for a long time. There is another 85 Grahams mag with a fill like the day it was bottled. I’ll cross my fingers but won’t be devastated if it’s undrinkable.