Vintage Port
Vintage Port accounts for only a fraction of the total Port production – which includes Tawny, Ruby, Late-Bottled Vintage and Single Quinta Vintage styles, among others – but is the finest, longest-lived and most expensive style around; the best are as good as any wine in existence. Made from a blend of wines from a producer's finest plots, it is aged for around 18 months in wooden casks, followed by at least 15 years ageing in bottle.
Bottle
£13.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 7cs
Bottle
£17.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 17cs
Half-btl
£30.50
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
With a deep colour, the nose of this Port is a concentrated mixture of spice and fruitcake. This is a full, fat and powerful wine with a good length. A wine with great potential.
Bottle
£51.00
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle
£54.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 114cs
Bottle
£56.38
Bottle
£57.58
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
(Tom Cave - Cellar Plan Manager - 28-Nov-2012)
Bottle
£59.86
Bottle
£60.00
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer
Bottle
£64.00
Bottle
£69.58
Bottle
£72.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 21cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
With a beautiful, rich and complex nose, on the palate this is quite dry. There is a serious juxtaposition of the ripe and dried fruits with expansive tannins. This has challenging, layered flavours and the promise of longevity. Very expressive and powerful Port.
Bottle
£77.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 20cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 21cs
Bottle
£80.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 24cs
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Demetri Walters MW - Wine Buyer
Very concentrated on the palate, full bodied with layers of plum and black fruits. I would drink it now or hold onto it for another decade, if you can.
Valiant Ki, London Shop
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£88.00
Tom Cave - Private Account Manager
Bottle
£92.00
It reveals high tannin and a reserved style, but it is enormously constituted with massive body, a formidable mid-palate, and exceptional length. It is a young, rich, powerful Taylor ... Compared to the more flashy, forward style of the 1992, the 1994 has more in common with such vintages as 1977 and 1970.
Bottle
£152.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£166.00
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle
£1,650.00
Poised behind its deep mahogany sheen, with aromatics of the Coffee House in St James's and the post prandial dining rooms of Pall Mall, the wine descants a rich rolling hymn to longevity and extraordinary complexity. Cloves, raisins, dates and elusive spices inform a palate which is a labyrinthine web of effortless contradiction; rich and restrained, intense and ethereal, venerable and yet incredibly fresh. To be celebrated and appreciated in equal measure, with quiet stentorian gratitude.
Simon Field MW - Port Buyer
Three exceptional and rare wines were chosen for the final Graham’s 90 blend described by the Symington family thus: Harvest 1935
The 1935 Tawny Port is a wine of remarkable elegance and beauty with fine acidity which is key to the balance of a wine of this age. This was a year of low yields in the Douro but of great quality, and classic Vintage Ports were made under perfect harvest conditions. Some Port companies declared the 1934 and some the 1935. Both years have proved to have aged superbly well.
The 1935 Vintage is considered by some to be amongst the greatest Ports of the first half of the 20th century. Andrew James Symington wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on 14th October 1935: “I am inclined to think that the quality and good colour inspires hope that the 1935 may prove good enough to make a Jubilee vintage – quantity is less than last year – but quality appears to be better.”
The three Symington brothers then working in the family business; Maurice, John and Ronald and their father Andrew James, did not declare this year, but they set aside a small quantity of 1935 Port to age in cask in view of the excellent quality of the best wines and to mark the Jubilee of King George V.
Charles has selected a small parcel of this extraordinary wine for the Graham’s 90.
Harvest 1924
The 1924 Vintage was widely declared by the leading Port houses and the wines have aged exceptionally well over the decades. An unusually cool summer resulted in wines with very good acidity, a hallmark of the year.
Gordon Cosens wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on the 10th October 1924: “Weather being fine throughout the gathering. The mostos showed good colour and life. That the '24s will turn out to be better than an ordinary vintage seems to be the general opinion.”
This 1924 Tawny Port originates from Quinta do Bom Retiro Pequeno, a very fine vineyard in the Rio Torto valley that is owned by the Symington family. Matured in cask at the estate until the mid-1960s, this Po Harvest 1912
A great classic year in the Douro that followed two legendary vintages, the 1904 and the immortal 1908. Widely declared by the best Port houses, the 1912 vintage Ports were bottled in the spring of 1914, just a few months before the outbreak of hostilities in August of that year. Although it’s early life was marked by the devastation of The Great War, this wine reached maturity in the late 1920s when it came to be recognised as one of the greatest ever Vintage Ports and was often served at fine dinners in the exuberant Roaring Twenties.
Amyas Warre (son of George Warre) wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on 23rd September 1912: “The grapes in all the fine vineyards were uniformly ripe and had all been gradually brought to this state of perfection.” This was an historic year for the Symington family as George Warre, whose family had been Port producers since 1729, decided to retire to England in 1912 and proposed a merger of Dow’s with the smaller Port company of Warre’s, the latter being then owned by Andrew James Symington.
Andrew accepted the proposal, initiating a partnership between the two families that was to last until the 1950s when the Warre family sold their remaining shares to the Symingtons. To mark the start of the partnership a small parcel of the 1912 Port was set aside in cask and it is a little of this wine that has been used by Charles in the Graham’s 90 Port.
The 1912 Tawny has extraordinary intensity having passed its centenary a few years ago and Charles Symington felt that this essence of well-aged Port would complement the elegant freshness of the 1935 Tawny.
Bottle 1 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle 1 x 75cl 2cs
Seldom, indeed, has the youthful Taylor declaimed so eloquently at such a young age. Forest floor scents, with notes of peat and herbs provide a worthy overture to the symphonic structure to come. The palate is complete and powerful, with taut acidity, youthful energy and layered complexity all confirming the quality of wine and vintage alike.
Simon Field MW, Port Buyer
Dark, inky in colour it is immediately obvious that this is a serious glass of Port. On the nose the dark fruits and cassis intermingle with floral notes, particularly violets – something that I normally associate with Fonseca, but it is very welcome here. The palate is rich and full, mouth-coating with blackcurrant, liquorice and spice. It has a big backbone to it and is taut with a real freshness. This is a stunning Vintage Port and one which will, I suspect, age for a very long time indeed.
Matt Tipping, Fine Wine Sales Manager
Bottle 3 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Magnum 3 x 150cl 1cs
Mark Squires, The Wine Advocate (summer 2018)