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Graham’s Port releases last ten bottles of the ‘magical’ 1948 vintage

14 November 2023 By Arabella Mileham

Graham’s Port has released ten of the very last remaining bottles of 1948 Vintage Port to commemorate His Majesty King Charles III’s 75th birthday today.

The wine was produced three years after the end of the Second World War from one of the most iconic vintages of the 20^th century, and made using the traditional method of foot-treading in granite tanks at Graham’s estate, Quinta dos Malvedos, in the Upper Douro Valley, before being aged for 75 years in Graham’s cellars.

Third generation port producer Peter Symington described the 1948 as “a truly magical vintage, which confirmed Graham’s as a first division Vintage Port house”.
Johnny Symington, chairman of Symington Family Estates, said it took a “rare constellation” of events for the quality of a harvest to be so good that it can produce a Vintage Port that can mature beautifully in bottle over so many decades.

“The Graham’s 1948 Vintage Port is one of those extraordinary wines. “As holders of the Royal Warrant for Graham’s Port, we have been honoured to commemorate various special occasions for the Royal Family by releasing some of our rarest and finest wines. We are delighted to now be releasing a Vintage Port as spectacular as the 1948 – the year His Majesty King Charles III was born.”

Its “extraordinary elegance and finesse” has evolved “into a truly sublime wine with great class and power”, the port house said, with “utterly seductive” aromas, “with vestiges of brambly red fruit, while the palate is refined with subtle tannins and an exceptionally composed finish.”

The port house, which held a Royal Warrant of Appointment from the late Queen Elizabeth II, is releasing ten of the last remaining bottles, presented in beautiful individually numbered walnut wood boxes, available exclusively at the Graham’s 1890 Lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia at €5,000 per bottle.