Roy Hersh wrote:A particularly stunning bottle of 1967 Vargellas was opened by a friend last night. Amazing beauty. I have seen a couple at this level before, but an equal number that were past prime, with fruit receding and menthol and spearmint replacing the fruit and aguardente poking through. Glad this one was as good as it gets!
It was served to a table of 7 invited wine guests, blind and the guessing game was put in place by the owner. My guess and that's all it was, based on color and flavor profile, was 1970 Taylor.
Do you remember who the bottler was and what year it was bottled? Sounds like a stunner!
Cracked open a 77 smith woodhouse. over a week standing in cellar and around 6 hours in decanter. While decanting I noticed a HUGE amount of sediment to the point I was a little concerned (cork came out whole but was pretty beaten up although no signs of seepage under the cap/on the top of cork. The color was an awesome lively red and the nose was HEAVY medicinal while coming out of bottle and into decanter. First glass came right after decanting it was not closed but tight. Only that medicinal alcohol smell and dark fruits with a short finish. Wine was still chilly at 55 degrees however. 2nd glass was after wine decanted for 6 hours. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just an incredibly vibrant and youthful red color to this 40 year old gem. Very well balanced and had cherries and softer type fruits instead of the typical darker fruits I pick up out ports. Not sure if any of you have had real licorice (not the crap we have in America like twizzlers but old school chunks of licorice like you would find in Europe. The smith woodhouse reminded me so much of this I want to run to Manhattan to grab some licorice today. The finish was smooth and long and the fruits hung around for a while. Just a great showing of the 77 vintage and of smith woodhouse.
Glad I have a handful more of these resting comfortably. will not revisit for at least 5-8 years as I felt the wine showed somewhat young at 40 years.
I normally save these for birthday Ports, but as I was re-arranging my fridges the other day I realized that I have enough birthday Port to last me until I'm nearly 100 years old. I'm guessing that I probably won't need that many, and these are getting to the "drink up" point so what the heck... drink up!
I normally save these for birthday Ports, but as I was re-arranging my fridges the other day I realized that I have enough birthday Port to last me until I'm nearly 100 years old. I'm guessing that I probably won't need that many, and these are getting to the "drink up" point so what the heck... drink up!