These are notes from a remarkable collection of Tawny Ports from Grahams, many of which I had never seen, much less had the opportunity to taste. They were collected by my friend James Robertson of Vancouver, a long time Port fanatic, many obtained from Portugal on visits to the producer. The wines were served with authentic Portuguese food – a light lunch that complemented the wines very well.

We started out with a choice of aperitifs – either white Port with tonic or straight white Port (I opted for the latter). All wines are Grahams unless otherwise noted.

Extra Dry White Port – light yellow colour, served chilled, and with an interesting nose of fruit and slight hints of bitter almond. On palate more stone fruit and as per the name, very dry finish. I prefer this to Taylor’s Chip Dry.

The Tawny – a 7-9 year old blend that I hadn’t seen before. The colour was an interesting amber with pink highlights, and there was orange rind in the nose and considerable heat. Dry finish also showing some warmth. Well balanced decent wine that would have contented us had it been the only one we had to taste, but it was overshadowed by what was to come.

10 Year Old – darker colour and a higher toned nose here with fig and cardamom hints. Excellent length. Good value.

20 Year Old – very similar colour to the 10, this showed a toasted cashew and honey nose, up front acidity with a bright lemony character, which carried through to the end of the lengthy finish. This one was more in my area of best appreciation.

30 Year Old – nice mellow nose of caramel and vanilla, and an interesting salty umami something. Full and smooth in the mouth, it seemed to take on weight with airing. Good concentration and long sweet finish. This one was my personal favourite of the aged tawnies.

40 Year Old – darker and sweeter in the nose, and we were back to roasted nuts and vanilla here, and an even sweeter nose. Sweet on palate, but quite bright at the end and that little uplift was endearing. The price curve steepens considerably as you go older in this range (this one is past many vintage Ports in price) and I like the 20 and 30, but one has to admire the 40 as well.

My order of preference from best to least was 30 – 20 – 40 – 10.

1982 Single Harvest Tawny Port – the tawnies are kept in cask as single harvest until they are blended into the various 10 -40 year wines and they are then shipped out, so these are source material for the tawnies we had just tasted. In some cases, the vintage material is considered worthy of issuing as a vintage dated wine, and the next four wines were of this nature. This one was a paler colour than the earlier wines, and it wasn’t as hot in the nose. It was a nice sweet marmalade nose with several fruit peel components, and was sweet and focussed in the mouth. It finished softer than the others to come. Commemorative bottling to celebrate the birth of HRH Prince George of Cambridge.

1969 Single Harvest Tawny Port – this was the first wine to be bottled and sold as a vintage tawny, and they bottled 6 casks out of the 21 they held at the time in that manner. More brown to the edges of this wine and a very pleasant Christmas cake sort of blended fruit and spice nose, sweet and mellow in the mouth and with a clean lingering finish.

1961 Single Harvest Tawny Port – instantly showing brighter in the nose then the previous wines, and in the mouth more up front acidity, medium body, a little hotter (although all bore the same alcohol on the labels) and some very interesting flavour elements including caramel, burnt sugar, a little vanilla and more nuts. Interesting greenish tint at the edges. Three out of fourteen casks made it into bottle in the second release – each one results in 712 bottles.
See http://malvedos.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/bottling-the-second-cask-of-1961/

1952 Single Harvest Tawny Port – more green at the edges here and also slightly more brown, and an impressive nose of spice and hints of sandalwood underneath the dried orange peel. Lots of acid, lots and lots of flavour and concentration, and exceptional length. One of those wines that you just sit back and thank your good fortune to have had the opportunity to taste.

My preference: 1952-1961-1982-1969.

It is probably worth noting that with Colheitas or singly vintage Tawny (interchangeable terms, I believe), they go through slow development while still in cask but not once they are in glass. That means that when there are several releases a few years apart, the wines may show some differences.

Wonderful tasting that took a lot of work to assemble and we were dutifully grateful to be in attendance!