Make sure to try this wine
Graham's, Late Bottled Vintage, 2014
3,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP
Graham's, Late Bottled Vintage, 2014 (15 EUR/18 USD in Sweden) port wine, Porto, Douro, Portugal, 3,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (85 points of 100 points) (07-08-2020 by Nenad Jelisic)
I do not remember when I last tasted such a good Graham's Late Bottled Vintage-port wine like this. Although the 2014 vintage was not so good, Graham's managed to make a really good port wine. The wine has a wonderful very sweet aroma that is filled with Crème de Cassis, dried red grapes, dried dates, dried figs, freshly ground coffee, black pepper, cocoa-rich dark chocolate, tobacco and sweet spices. Very sweet flavour that is filled with dried black cherries, Crème de Cassis, rum raisins, black pepper, sweet spices, tobacco, cocoa-rich dark chocolate, dried figs and dried dates. The balance between the wine's sweetness and the wine's acidity/tannins is fabulous. If the wine's flavour would be as good as its aroma, it would get 5,0 NJP out of 5,0 NJP. It has a really good aging potential, at least 10 years, i.e. until at least 2030, and will during these years reach 4,0 NJP or even more.
The wine is a blend of four different grape varieties: Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Amarela and Tinta Barroca. The wine's production process is as follows: the grapes are harvested and selected by hand, after the harvest, the grapes are delivered to the winery where they are destemmed and then placed in the low stone tanks (lagares) where they are treaded (crushed) by mechanized feet. After the destemming and crushing process, the grape must, which consists of pulp, skins and seeds, is fermented in the stone tanks until it has an alcohol strength of 6 to 8% when it is fortified to 19 to 21% with 77% grape spirit. Then the wine is separated from the grape must and aged in large oak barrels 5 years before it is released on the market. With Late Bottled Vintage, it is meant that the port wine comes from a single vintage and that has been aged in oak barrels between 4 and 6 years. Do not worry about the sediment of the wine in the second to last or the last glass. The sediment only shows that the producer has not filtered the wine at all.
The wine will brilliantly fit with a lot of different cheeses like Castello Blue, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano Reggiano, Roquefort, Stilton, and Västerbotten. Or with less sweet cherry pie, blueberry pie and apple pie or with cocoa rich dark chocolate or with pancakes filled with Nutella, very fine grated dark chocolate and walnuts or with Swedish kladdkaka, but so little sweet as possible. Or just enjoy it without any food. I recommend that you start to drink Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 2014 at 8°C (unlike what most of wine websites recommend) and let it slowly grows/opens in the glass while you drink it. If you can drink it from Riedel Vinum Port or Orrefors Difference Sweet or Orrefors Elixir.
