Graham’s, the port company owned by the Symington family, has announced the release of a Single Harvest Port from 1940.
The launch of the “extremely rare” Graham’s 1940 Single Harvest pays tribute to three generations of master blenders, who have tended to the wine over eight decades.
Current master blender Charles Symington has selected just two casks of 1940 tawny port that he deemed merited bottling for the special release.
Graham’s was among the few producers that continued its work during the Second World War and, while the 1940 harvest was smaller than usual, it was a year of extremely high-quality grapes.
The diminutive size of the 1940 crop due to an unsettled spring in the Douro Valley that thinned the yield proved to be a fortuitous occurrence, as the summer was exceptionally dry and the reduced number of grape bunches placed fewer demands on the low water reserves in the soil.
The wine from this harvest was bottled after maturing in seasoned oak casks for almost eighty years, resulting in a wine with “complex aromas of caramel, praline chocolate, demerara and coffee roast”.
“It’s not often we have the privilege of releasing a wine that is eight decades old and bears such unique historic significance,” said Charles Symington.
“The 1940 Single Harvest really is remarkably refined and balanced, offering a reflection not only of the quality of the original wine, but the skilled care and attention it received from our forebears.”
Graham’s 1940 Single Harvest represents the last wine from The Cellar Master’s Trilogy to be released, after vintages from 1994 and 1963.
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