I love Warre’s as a whole and 1977 is lovely. It is a different style than Taylor/Fonseca/etc. It’s a more feminine style, think of a Ferrari vs. a Rolls Royce. Both great, but different.
Just dug out a pair of Taylor 1977’s and looking forward to opening one this week.
Damn, wish I had known this before I schlepped a bottle of 77 Dow across the ocean to reveal its corky self. No more. Thanks for the info that it was not a one off.
Warres, Taylor, Fonseca and Dow for mine, but as previously stated, lots of variation and cork issues.
Not a big fan of the '77 Grahams or Noval.
Much prefer to drink '70’s
Thanks for alerting me to this post Eric. I feel the 91 Dow we had last night had an ever so slight amount of corking. it was earthy in a way I’ve never had with a vintage port.
A lot of the earlier vintage VP’s from that decade have been in varying states of shut down the past 4-5 years, especially the 1994’s. I’ve not had the '91 Dow’s recently but earthy is more in line with being shut down than corked.
thanks for your note Andy! It did open up after hour 5 or so in the decanter.
Opened a 1977 Taylors Port and just perfect. Bright red color and succulent grape and blackberry flavor. Smooth clear and perfect.
Nice, when this shows well it shows really well!
Also not my experience. I bought a couple of cases in a store close out and am down to my last few bottles. I can’t remember a single corked bottle. Andy, your description of the corkiness is a little unusual, coming in six hours after opening. I can usually pick out corkiness in the first 30 seconds, and it only gets worse. Never had something where it took that long to show. Could it be something else?
Fonseca, as you say, is hit and miss, but when it hits, it is sublime. Taylor has been more consistent, but I have never particularly liked it, as I don’t think the alcohol ever fully integrated.
Trust me it has that issue. Roy didn’t believe me either then we experienced it together a few times, wonderful for about 4-6 hours, then out of nowhere the TCA rears it’s ugly head. And talk to all the serious Port folks on FTLOP it’s a well known issue with the Dow’s. Except for 1983 Cockburn’s VP, I’ve had more corked 1977 Dow’s than any other Port.
Actually, Taylor’s has slightly more bottle variation than Fonseca and that comes directly from an irrefutable source with 3 letters in the title before his name who’s consumed more of it than all of us combined. LOL
Agree about Taylor’s, well more so the ones previous to about 2009. Taylor’s has always had what I call “Vargellas heat” to it. It typically shows more spirit than others in its class.
While I don’t drink a lot of it this was my experience with a bottle I brought to a horizontal at Jay Hack’s place many years ago. I decanted it for a while before making the trip and sent an email saying it smelled great. By the time I got up there and we started drinking the TCA was obvious.
Just decanted a bottle; smells good now, but will leave it and see. Perhaps the problem is that most of the time, it never lasts 6 hours.
small glass with lunch, a little austere, but plenty of length and power.
Same. Still very young too.
Had a1977 Ferreira a few weeks ago, with Andy and a group of others. Other bottles in the past have been tired, but this one was perfect. Beautiful feminine style with a wonderful rich mouthfeel.
small glass with lunch, a little austere, but plenty of length and power.
Just to echo some of what’s been said here, I do think Fonseca is consistently the best '77. I, too, have noticed a lot of variability with the Taylor’s, but when performing at peak, it’s almost the equal to the Fonseca. Same with the Dow’s, but as Andy states, there’s a serious tca issue. My experience is not 80% as Andy suggests, but probably around 40-50%, which is still entirely too high. I’ve been arguing with Roy since the early wine board days on AOL twenty years ago that the Graham’s was an unbalanced, alcoholic mess. Come to think of it, I argued with him about corky Dow’s, then, as well. Yes, it has smoothed out a little with time, but, to my tastes, it’s a dud. The Warre’s is a safe bet. A solid, easy drinking forty year old Port that’s a relative bargain. I find the Smith-Woodhouse falls into that category as well.
I opened a bottle of Graham’s last month and let it sit in the decanter for about 3 hours. Not the best '77 by any means, but it wasn’t at all unbalanced. I’ve always liked Smith-Woodhouse from that vintage. I’m not much of a Port drinker anymore so I can literally count the number of bottles in my cellar on one hand, all '77s. 2 Dow, one Graham’s, one Fonseca.
Brad and Larry,
I’m there with both of you. The '77 Graham’s has mellowed a bit in recent years. It used to show a ton of excess heat and was way out of balance. Not quite so now, though it is still unbalanced for the house and IMO always will be. So while I wasn’t a fan of it many years ago I am more tolerant of it now. Though I still get a good chuckle when I see posted notes on it that say it’s the best thing since sliced white bread. I’d love to take it and put it side by side with a better vintage of Graham’s to show those folks how out of balance it is.
When not corked it’s one of the best of the vintage, IMO. Hope it continues to show well ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}