Port not ‘second division’ of world’s fine wines

Port makers must on occasion release rare, high-priced wines to prevent the region from being placed in the “second division” of the wine world, said producer Paul Symington at the launch of a £700 Tawny to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday.

Just 500 bottles of Graham’s 90 will be released at £700 a bottle

Just 500 bottles of Graham’s 90 have been produced, made from a blend of the last remaining quantities of the 1912, 1924 and 1935 vintages, to mark the milestone. At a tasting to launch the rare blend at Berry Bros. & Rudd (BBR) yesterday, Paul Symington, the head of Symington Family Estates, which owns Graham’s and Cockburn’s Port, said the Douro needed to compete with the world’s fine wine regions by releasing wines at the “highest end”, or risk being placed in the “second division” of fine wines.

“We cannot accept that the Douro is just about everyday wines because then we put ourselves into the second division,” said Symington. “It’s important that we occasionally do wines like this, as it’s an extremely important benchmarking exercise for our region.”

The limited edition Port will be released in partnership with BBR at £700 a bottle to mark the Queen’s birthday, with only “tiny” quantities of each historic vintage now left in the cellar.

“We had no wines from 1926 and a 90 year old was not allowed by the Port Wine Institute”, explained Paul Symington having been approached by BBR to release a wine to mark the occasion, “so initially we were hitting a brick wall. The institute will only allow the date of the harvest, the vintage, or 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old. So we went to the institute and said can we do a 90 year old. They said no. We explained that the Queen had done a tremendous amount for Port and could you not make an exception.

“There were lots frowns and gloom spread across the room, so we went down on bended knee and tugged our forelocks and a few days later they said they would allow us to do 500 bottles for the Queen’s birthday. So this really is quite a special thing.”

Mr Symington admitted it was a wine for “wealthy people”, but that it represented excellent value given its age and price in comparison to wines from other regions.

Urging producers not to accept that Port was “second division” to other regions, Symington pointed out the price of wines from other regions to emphasise the value of Graham’s 90, stating that a bottle of 2010 Mouton currently stood at £650, Lafite £650, Screaming Eagle £2,000 and Petrus £2,000.

“This wine is 90 years old and I don’t think expensive for an older wine,” he said. “It’s obviously for wealthy people, there’s no two ways about it. £700 is a lot of money, but it is 90 years old. We can never repeat it and compared to these other wines it’s quite modest.

“Some people will say that’s a ridiculous price, but if you don’t do that we are accepting that we are the second division to some of the great wine regions of the world and that is what we don’t want.”

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during a visit to Oporto in 1957, which was only Her Majesty’s fourth ever state visit since becoming Queen.

Just 500 bottles of Graham’s 90 have been produced, made from a blend of the last remaining quantities of the 1912, 1924 and 1935 vintages. The 1935 was made in the Jubilee Year of King George V. The 1924 was one of the best inter-war “declared” vintages, while the 1912 was the last very good year prior to the outbreak of The Great War, bottled in 1914.

“Port has long been used to toast Royal and historic occasions by every conceivable British institution for centuries, hence this seemed an entirely appropriate collaboration”, said Johnny Symington of Symington Family Estates.

“We knew we would have to create something very special to pay a fitting tribute to the Queen’s 90 years of service to the nation and we believe that we have with the Graham’s 90, which we have only been allowed to launch by special permission of the Port Wine Institute.”

Graham’s 90 Very Old Tawny Port is available in the UK exclusively through Berry Bros. & Rudd, priced at £700 per bottle. A charitable contribution will be made by Graham’s for each bottle of Graham’s 90 sold with the monty raised going toward The Patron’s Fund which supports a collection of UK and Commonwealth charities of which Her Majesty the Queen is the patron. A minimum contribution of £10,000 is guaranteed.

Crowds greet the Queen in Porto in 1957