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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.9 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 56 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Norcal5 on 12/23/2023: Auction (977 views) | | | Tasted by joshdrinkswine2008 on 11/25/2023 & rated 91 points: Delightful. Lots of fruit， not overly sweet. (1024 views) | | | Tasted by atbarbar on 4/29/2023 & rated 90 points: Yes, a bit of density and alcohol. Yes, still somewhat primary, but that is normal. Moreover ports in warm years... you better have them primary at least you can enjoy the fruit rather than just the alcohol. As normal with vintage ports a bit closed as soon as opened. A bit of decanter reveals liquorice and further air violets and vanilla a bit more and it deliver sweet cherries. Nothing to rave about but a good port in the end. Can hold for another 10 years but I would consume with enough decanting beforehand. (1770 views) | | | Tasted by PAX ROMANA on 4/2/2023 & rated 87 points: Really disappointing, especially when tased next to the 2003 Dow's. Out of a 375 ml. The color, nose, and palate were all very youthful/primary. Nose was pretty shy and what came across most was black fruit and alcohol. Reminded me more of a simple ruby port than a 20 year old vintage port. Simple, straightforward, and an unimpressive finish. Terrible value.
Do Graham's tend to age more slowly than Dow's? (1834 views) | | | Tasted by SaltWine on 3/2/2022: Coffee notes with a remaining spirity palate – not so ready as 2000 (2794 views) | | | Tasted by EhrlichDY on 2/29/2020 & rated 93 points: Rich, round, ripe, and delicious. This is still showing tons of glossy primary fruit but certainly not overdone. From .375 this is in its initial drinking window but will last a long, long, time. (5328 views) | | | Tasted by Snowryeder on 11/29/2019 & rated 93 points: Delicious. Improved during the night. Not a lot of complexity at this point. Rich, cherries, prunes & spices. (4774 views) | | | Tasted by PatrickEwing on 10/14/2019 & rated 93 points: Solidly past the primary phase but still big fruit and a touch sweeter than anticipated. Would have preferred to let it sit for some years still. That being said, a fantastic port. Peaked on day 3. (4770 views) | | | Tasted by Xavier Auerbach on 1/13/2018 & rated 95 points: Graham/Barton tasting-cum-lunch (Restaurant Bak, Amsterdam, NL): Hugely impressive, sweet fruit, cherry liqueur, very fresh and pure, violets and cherries, radiant, harmonious and energetic, very young and still completely primary, powerful but completely enveloped tannins, long and lifted finish. Great future. (8776 views) | | | Tasted by Dom K on 12/17/2017 & rated 97 points: Vintage port aged 15 years and paired with blackforest cake. Deep dark and opaque with thick viscous tears. Blackberry jam, raisins, figs, liqueur and a hint of thyme leaves. It feels weightless on the tongue, silky smooth, and beautifully aged. Long lingering finish. (6657 views) | | | Tasted by forceberry on 11/11/2017 & rated 93 points: The cork was already pretty dried up, so it teared apart quite easily while I was trying to extract it. To make matters worse, the inside part was pretty much cemented in its place with residual sugar. Fortunately I had a decanter and a fine sieve at hand.
Quite completely opaque, brooding black cherry color with date-brown highlights and somewhat clear ruby-colored rim. The nose is - true to the Graham style - quite sweet, rich and heady with aromas of plum liqueur, dried dark fruits, some floral perfume, a little bit of roasted earthy spices and a touch of raisin. The wine feels full-bodied, broad and quite weighty on the palate with rich and rather sweet flavors of very ripe and still slightly sour dark forest berries, some blackcurrant jam, a little bit of raisin, a hint of peppery spice and a touch of cherry marmalade. The wine is moderately tannic with firm grip on the gums, but only medium in acidity, making the wine come across as slightly sticky and unctuous. The finish is sweet, rich and quite warm with opulent flavors of jammied mulberries and dark forest fruits, some plum marmalade, a little bit of grippy tannic action, a hint of raisins and a touch of dried dates. The sweetness leaves a rich and somewhat sticky aftertaste.
A most classic and beautiful Vintage Port from the weighty and unctuous end. Although the wine is finally moving on from its most primary phase, it is still relatively young and still far away from its apogee. You can really feel the presence of hot vintage - even for the typically sweet and rich Grahams style, this wine is pretty unctuous, weighty and even somewhat sticky with fairly low acidity. Hard to say whether this will hold in the really long run (i.e. decades), but will still develop for a long time. I can imagine this will be starting to peak somewhere around or after its 25th birthday. Feels a bit overpriced at 95€. (4737 views) | | | Tasted by Zed57 on 7/31/2017 & rated 93 points: Half bottle. Drinking really well. A laser beam of blackberry and raspberry. I was surprised by the sophistication and long long finish. It will last years in the half bottle but i will wait at least 3-5 for the full. (4844 views) | | | Tasted by jnewman77 on 5/20/2017: Delicious, still quite young. Luscious dark fruits, smoke, scorched earth, anise. Great depth and power. Really delicious. (4911 views) | | | Tasted by Ombibulous on 4/8/2016: Half bottle cost me $79. It was excellent. Truly outstanding in a complex sort of way! But not quite worth that much. Will not buy again. (5104 views) | | | Tasted by wtianseter on 12/25/2015 & rated 86 points: I was truly disappointed in this wine since it has been rated so highly in previous community notes. This bottle was NOT a 90 point wine. It was delicious and was a good solid Port but was rather one dimensional with mostly simple raisin flavor and a nice sweet lingering light tannin on the finish. We had it with desert at Christmas-no one made a significant comment that one would expect with a supposed ~92 point wine. (4984 views) | | | Tasted by indiscriminate palate on 10/15/2015: TTTG (2003s blind tasting) (Steve): Prunes and some heat on the nose. Very nice on the palate; raisins, pepper. Rich and complex. Yum. (5655 views) | | | Tasted by Saint Stephen on 10/15/2015 & rated 92 points: Some Like it Hot - 2003s, TTTG at Steve's (Steve's House): By this point I wasn't paying very close attention but this was delicious and very well made. Worlds better than the 03 Noval Silval in the next glass. (5108 views) | | | Tasted by SWHighlander on 7/12/2014 & rated 93 points: Tasted at the Graham port lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia as part of a horizontal and vertical tasting. Tobacco notes, smokey. Very nice port. (4701 views) | | | Tasted by awinestory on 1/17/2014 & rated 94 points: Inky, jammy black fruit on the nose and palate, very well balanced with med+ racy acidity, muscular yet supple tannins, and a long finish of crushed blackberries and minerals.
Other flavors: spice, black currant, cinnamon, nutmeg, loganberries, mission fig (fresh, ripe), black prune (moist, top quality), cassis
How could I know it was a 2003 blind tasting it?
- 2003 was a generally declared vintage year
- well integrated acidity and tannins - rather seamless and cohesive.
- compared to the Fonseca 2008 (not a generally declared vintage year) it tastes less "fresh" and one can see the patina of five additional years aging in terms of its slightly more oxidized (sherried) notes. (5196 views) | | | Tasted by nicklewis on 12/25/2012: - Garnet color with medium forming legs and aromas of tar and blackberry. It's balanced and has flavours of blackberry, fig, black currant and molasses with a full body. Fleshy texture with a long finish - Drank with Stilton for dessert at our 2012 tree-trimming party. Delicious, very heavy... (5940 views) | | | Tasted by grafstrb on 5/13/2012: -- tasted a single pour non-blind at the tasting room --
NOSE: strong/intense aromatics of very dark fruits, leather, and a background lifted note.
BODY: black-violet color of great depth; medium-full to full bodied.
TASTE: blackberry/blackberry concentrate; surprisingly fresh; strongly flavored; sweet, but not overly so; strong drying tannin; a serious wine. (6831 views) | | | Tasted by WineKnurd on 2/12/2012 & rated 95 points: Popped a bottle for a friend's housewarming party and really impressed. Damson plums, pluots, raisins, anise, and creme de cassis nose + palate; very fruit forward but clean. Silky smooth texture with enough structure to keep the heat from turning into nyquil. Finish is clean and not syrupy. About halfway through the bottle, oxidized notes of bitter pecan shells came out along with hints of wild red berries, dates, and figs. Really enjoyed this port; accessible and drinking well now and will be nice to see how it ages. Thinking it might be tough to wait 5 years before I pop my next bottle.
Style & Quality- A. Only time will tell if it can achieve an A+ evaluation but the potential for more complexity is there. Still thinking about how clean the fruit flavors were.
Value- A. $55/pop isn't a steal but you will never find a vintage port from a declared year discounted. Very reasonable price considering I paid $55 for a 1994 Cockburn 1994 which is another general Port declaration vintage.
Overall- A. (7363 views) | | | Tasted by DonalOB on 10/24/2011 & rated 93 points: Vintage Port Masterclass (Langham Place Hotel, Hong Kong): Another young port. This time dark fruit and licorice, although more muted than the Croft. Spicy palate but the finish is medium. (7568 views) | | | Tasted by Samsara on 10/6/2011 & rated 84 points: Au travail, rotation des produits en dégustation au kiosque libre-service : nouvelle bouteille. (6159 views) | | | Tasted by Biggsy on 6/18/2011: Unfortunately not decanted well by the restaurant and swimming with thick sediment. Not tasted. A shame. (5464 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Panel Tasting
Decanter, Vintage Port 2000 & 2003: panel tasting results (10/1/2022)
(Graham's, Touriga Nacional, Port, Douro Valley, Portugal, Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (5/17/2018)
(Graham's Port Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Roy Hersh
For The Love of Port, Issue #62 (3/31/2011)
(Grahams Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Roy Hersh
For The Love of Port, July 2007, Issue #25
(Graham’s Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (9/18/2006)
(Graham port Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Roy Hersh
For The Love of Port, February 2007, Issue #22
(Graham Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, January/February 2006, IWC Issue #124
(Graham Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Chris Kissack
Winedoctor, November 2005
(Graham's Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Roy Hersh
For The Love of Port, February 2006, Issue #13
(Graham Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Roy Hersh
For The Love of Port, July 2005, Issue #10, 2003 Vintage Port Forecast
(Graham Cask Sample Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (5/20/2005)
(Graham port Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Chris Kissack
Winedoctor, May 2005
(Graham's Vintage Port) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Decanter and JancisRobinson.com and For The Love of Port and Vinous and Winedoctor. (manage subscription channels) |
| Graham Producer websiteGraham Porto VintageIn the earlier part of the 20th century, this wine was bottled with different labels. Within the same vintage and the same wine, it would be labeled "Vintage" and "Finest Reserve" depending on where it was released and who the distributing agent was.
For consistency's sake, we have opted to use only the "Vintage" name for this wine. That is what Graham has settled on going forward. Searching for "Graham's Finest Reserve" will lead to this entry.Port BlendOver a hundred varieties of grapes (castas) are sanctioned for port production, although only five (Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Touriga Francesa, and Touriga Nacional) are widely cultivated and used.
- Mayson (1999), Port and the Douro, p. 93
Portugal ViniPortugal (Associação Interprofissional para a Promoção dos Vinhos Portugueses/Portuguese Wine Trade Association)Douro Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e PortoPorto For The Love of Port is an essential site on the wines of Porto and Madeira. Co-subscribers can automatically integrate their reviews here as well. Also, read more about the HistoryOfPort. |
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