Grahams Stone Terraces 2017 (750ML)

100 JS / 97-99 WA / 97 VM / 19.5 JR

The aromas here are amazing: crushed blueberries and raspberries with wet earth and dried flower. Orange blossom. Tar and stone. Full body, very sweet but the powerful and fine-grained tannins balance the wine out. Tannins and fruit envelop your mouth with each sip. Great potential. Single vineyard port. 600 cases. Try after 2030. James Suckling

 The 2017 The Stone Terraces Vintage Port, from a specific plot, is predominantly Touriga Nacional. It comes in with 117 grams of residual sugar and was bottled about a month before this tasting after 18 months in seasoned oak vats. However, this was a pre-bottling sample, as the bottled sample was not quite ready to taste. I was—relatively—unimpressed with the first pour of this. The second pour was silk for texture coupled with pure power. This is relatively elegant in the mid-palate, but the muscle is very old-school. It is not jammy, but it is remarkably concentrated as well. MS – The Wine Advocate

 The 2017 Graham’s The Stone Terraces Vintage Port is certainly a step up from the regular Graham’s. The Stone Terraces takes its name from the terraces at Quinta dos Malvedos where it was picked from August 28 until September 15. This is more complex on the nose with compelling aromas of damson, bilberry, hints of lavender, orange blossom and camphor. The delineation is wonderful. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannin, brilliantly-judged acidity that counterbalances the intense black cherry, boysenberry and blueberry fruit. There is superb grip here and conveys a sense of symmetry that leaves you yearning for the next sip. This is the more erudite sibling of the regular Graham’s that will deserve a decade in the cellar. Total production is 6,360 wax-sealed bottles, 180 magnum and 120 Tappit Hens. Neal martin – Vinous Media

 600 cases. From two cooler plots at Malvedos: parcel 37, known as Cardenhos (a north-east-facing amphitheatre), and parcel 43, called Port Arthur (east facing), each of them with little more than 1,300 vines. (Most of the Malvedos vines are south facing.) Although yields overall were down in 2017, the Touriga Nacional from these sites was particularly successful and produced almost as much fruit as usual. TA 4.22 g/l, Baumé 4. Bottled May 2019. Black core with tiny narrow rim. Fragrant with lifted, floral black fruit. Wonderful complexity on the palate: those fresh dark fruits, some smoky earl grey tea leaf, and all that floral intensity even though there's masses of dark fruit. Tannins are incredibly silky, like slub silk, and add another layer of purity to a wonderfully expressive wine. Perfect harmony. (JH) Jancis Robinson