April 26, 2024 - Seems young, more ruby than tawny, well balanced, medium bodied.
March 26, 2024 - Decent enough, fruit holding up quite well
March 17, 2024 - A bit acidic and maybe even starting to turn. Was good but not great.
October 1, 2023 - Much better improved over the prior bottle. Sweet black cherry, coffee, and some wordiness. Grainy tannins but higher acidity could add balance.
December 11, 2022 - Might be in a dumb phase currently, but not very good nor expressive over three days. Paired with fudge brownies and vanilla ice cream. Aromas are closed down and the flavors were sweet but simplistic at best. Structure is lurking. Decanting didn’t help. Hopefully this will improve given additional bottle time, right now it’s a pass.
December 18, 2021 - Usual good ruby port. Rich with just right sweetness.
November 13, 2021 - No rating - obviously we drank this but darned if I remember. Probably typical Taylor with good sweetness and rich body.
November 13, 2021 - From a 50mL bought in a shop in Porto - not sure how long it was on the shelf. Nice ruby with slight bricking throughout. There is a very fine suspended precipitate, indicating this probably was on the shelf for quite a while. On the nose, aromas of toffee, caramel, raisins, plums. On the palate, the attack is frank, with a noticeable acidity and tannin (quite structured despite the aromas that make it appear quite aged). It has a good length but seems to be ending somewhat on oaky aromas. A good persistence. 87 mostly for the structure.
After visiting Graham’s Port lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia, I had this idea that I would find miniatures of two (or more) other LBVs to compare with the Graham’s 2015. This was not was easy as expected, as a) my wonderful wife is not fond of my drinking and as such, I must be discrete in my shopping, and b) outside of the lodges, it is difficult to find the latest vintage and be sure about the quality of the storage.
In this tasting, I compared Dow’s (non-crusted) 2013 LBV, Taylor’s 2014 LBV and Graham’s 2015 LBV - the only one purchased in a lodge.
I believe both the Dow and the Taylor suffered from their storage. Only the Graham’s was fresh. I still compared them, but won’t formally give an actual score to the Dow or Taylor at this stage.
Of the three, the Graham’s was best (freshest, best balance), followed by the Dow which had nice aromas of an older Port and the Taylor was, though well structured, the least pleasant owing to the fine suspended particulate (tannin). It was a little bit harsh and the toffee notes a little to present compared to the fruit IMHO.
The Graham’s was better than the 2011 I tasted when last in Portugal. 2011 was an awesome vintage, and this seems to demonstrate that a good-but-not-quite-vintage year can have better LBVs that an awesome vintage year, as in the vintage years, the best grapes goes into the vintage, not the lbv. I rated the 2015 higher than the 2011.
May 24, 2021 - Huge concentrated, blackberries, plums, blueberries. Almost a bit too sweet and thick for my likikgnbut well crafted
March 7, 2021 - Good LBV. Off dry with overripe blackberry, black currant, raisins, pine, eucalyptus and bitter herbs. Just the slightest hint of oak; which comes out as sort of a tobacco note. Tannins are perfect - firm but not too big. Full bodied, high alcohol. Perfect with some stilton.