recent buy tawny questions

[rudy p]

Hi, last week i bough 2 bottles of tawny
https://imgur.com/GU7Nm1X
https://imgur.com/Uz2Nfos
I dont know if you guys can help me with the couple of questions i have, first i bough them for 150$ us, and didnt know if this price was good or not since the graham is very old, the capsule is cracked and i cant find any bottle like it for sale anywhere, second, on the quinta do noval, the seal of garantia is torn off, so i was wondering if i got scammed since i have read afterwards on forum that tawny cant age in bottle , they can even deteriorate. i was wondering too about the storing before drinking them, there is not much information on keeping tawny, some say it can be in cellar, some dont recommend to put em on the side since the cap isnt a twist cork and can leak but they all seems to agree that it need to be in a dark cool and between 50-70% humidity place, but if not in a cellar and standing .. i dont seems to have any idea to where to put them. thanks for your advice and i hope its not a too stupid question but since i coudnt find any graham bottle like this one i tough maybe i got scammed lol !
Thanks
Rudy

[Andy Velebil]

The Graham's is a really old bottling, being bottled in 1989 if I read the label correctly. Given it's so old, I personally would not have paid $150 as it's probably not going to show as good as it did back when it was bottled. However, If you paid $150 for the pair, then at $75 each that's a price I'd be willing to pay for older bottlings.

As for the Noval. The back label should have a bottling date. Can you see if it's there? The seal (Selo) missing like this one isn't a big deal. They often get torn off if they hang off the bottle with no glue to keep them affixed to the bottle. Based on the label and bottle, the Noval is most likely a newer bottling than the Graham's so it should show much better. The price I would have paid is like the Graham's, depends on when it was bottled. So it may have been a fair price as mentioned above.

Tawny's with an indication of age generally are not meant to age in bottle. They are best within a few years of bottling. They won't be bad if held longer, they just become different. Mostly, they get very simple and sweet showing. As for storing them, you can lay them on their sides like regular wine without issues in the cellar.

[rudy p]

thanks alot !, Yeah i paid 150$ for the pair, yeah the noval was bottled in 2002, ill put em in my cellar right away !
Rudy