I once drank Port, a long time ago. More recently - say last 15 years - I prefer Madeira for an after-dinner wine. I especially prefer the drier more high acid Sercials. But when I drink Port, I actually tend to prefer Tawny over Vintage. And here I am in Portugal, and really enjoying the immersion back into Port. And yet, I still prefer Tawny.
Have had some wonderful things, an 1847 Vintage Port from an unknown producer (A.C. Rodrigues & Co.), a 1944 Colheita (Real Ca. Velha), some old Tawny like 30 Sandeman, 40 Graham’s and 50 Quinto Vallados. Have had some other younger Colheitas as well.
Tonight after a very long day, which included a wonderful tasting at Graham’s, I ended the day with a Taylor’s Very Very Old Port, which is basically an 80-year old Tawny. And it’s glorious. Amazing to think that this wine has some juice pre-dating WWII!
Incredibly vibrant and fresh, but with some subtle aged hints of sweet dried balsamic and orange rind. Quite dark in color, bold black fruits, plums, dark chocolate, smoke and toasted hazelnuts. Very full bodied but quite well-integrated, not a nit out of place. Remarkably long, plush, warm finish. I could have drank this seamless wine, contemplatively, all night long (97 pts.)
I would be remiss if I did not comment on - nay, rave about - the Graham’s tasting a few hours earlier. I tend not to be a big fan of the structured winery visits and tastings, but this one was exceptional. They gave me a fantastic cross-section of the history of this grand estate and all of the wines that they make. They also give you various levels of tastings, depending on your desires. I chose both the old Tawny tasting and the “older” vintage tasting. And what you get is some fairly healthy pours of:
Tawny Tasting
1997 Single Harvest Tawny Port
30 Graham’s Tawny
40 Graham’s Tawny
And a bonus 1990 Single Harvest that is only sold on property, and yes, I bought one. Was a true beauty. Very pronounced orange marmalade on toast points notes. All of these Tawny Ports were excellent.
I think for value/quality, the 30 year Tawny could be one of the best wine values in the world. It’s just an exceptional drink. Beautiful amber color. Great balance between fruit and acids, fresh not too sweet, with a broad range of notes like walnuts, caramel and molasses. Hints of dried citrus as well. But it’s the weight and acid that makes this one race. (94 pts.)
The guide recommended we drink the Vintage Ports before the Tawny Ports. I expressed some surprise to him about that, but he said that is exactly how the winemaker recommended. Who am I to say but for my palate I think they are completely wrong. The Tawny Ports are more nuanced and complex than these “Young” Vintage Ports, and they clearly do not carry the same weight and scale. Less alcohol and structure showing, generally speaking, unless we are talking about Vintage Ports of, say, 50 years of age or more. At least that’s my take. Flipping the order of drinking was absolutely superb for my palate.
The Vintage Ports were the 1994, 2000 and 2016. The 1994 was quite lovely but still quite young. Still a very powerful expression of Port, with Christmas cake, notes, a broad range of very dark fruits, and the signature notes of Graham’s, mint and eucalyptus. (93 pts.). The 2000 was still quite jammy, and the 2016 was all big chewy black fruits, structure and tannins. Neither are even remotely ready. I did appreciate the pronounced eucalyptus notes in each of them, especially in the 2016. That 2016 did possess some of the freshness that I’ve seen in 2016 Bordeaux, so maybe it is developing along fairly classic lines, but still just way too young for my assessment.
If I look exhausted, it’s because I am! It has been an extremely long week, and a very robust day, so a 3 PM tasting after a long lunch with some wines, I had to have my game on!
I do not have the proficiency of someone like Otto, I have way too much ADHD for that, but these are some random notes that I took as I went through the tasting, listening to the wonderful guy tell us about the history of the property. I have not edited these in any way, they come straight off my iPhone:
Graham’s Tasting 11.7.2025
Established 1820
W&J were in textiles first
Brothers
7 million litres in storage today at this facility
Symington joined the winery as the accountant at age 19 then started buying port wineries. Symington finally bought Grahams in 1970.
Now owns Warres, Dow, Cockburn, Quinto do Vesuvio
Hilly vineyards. All stone terraced. Picked by hand. Super low yield. Schist soil, hard and rocky. The Stone Terraces are actually built from material excavated from the vineyards.
Blend of:
Touriga Nacional - the primary grape
Tinto Roriz - Tempranillo
Sousao
Ferments for two days then fortified by brandy (aguadiente - 77% ABV). After, yeast dies off and then sugars remain
18-22% typical ABV in Port
Graham’s averages 20%
LBv matured 5 years in 75,000 liter barrels made of Chestnut
Tawny is the average age of the blended wines. A signature style that they attempt to replicate each time. Blended at time of bottling not at maturation in barrel. Matured in oak.
Tawny evaporates 2% per year in barrel, alcohol evaporates more quickly. They replenish - "top off - with aguadiente.
Graham’s has five vineyards. When each of the five excels in one finishing year, then they declare a “vintage year”
Vintage wines not filtered. Sediment allows the maturing effortlessly
Average of 3-4 declared vintages per decade
Global warming making it less - interesting, would have thought the opposite.
Looking for balanced vintages without extremes
Colheita is a tawny from a single vintage
Two barrels of 1882 very old tawny to commemorate the founding year
They have one bottle from 1888. Second to last bottle just sold from their gift store at $16,000 euros.
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