TN: Christopher's Bual 1878

[Eric Ifune]

Christophers is a well known wine merchant in London. Unknown when bottled. It does appear to be a modern bottle. From a 700 ml bottle, T-type closure.
Dark amber color with olive oil rim.
Odd aromas upon opening. Lots of bottle stink. Also an odd rancio smell, more akin to Oloroso Sherry rather than Madeira. Actually not particularly pleasent. Proper Bual weight and sweetness.
Over the course of the next two day, the aromas persisted. The flavors improved a bit, with the acidity becoming more pronounced. It was hard to get past the aromas, so I left it for two weeks while I was in Northern California on business.
This has improved with the long air time. Most of the bottle stink has finally abated. Much of the Sherry-like smells have also abated. It might even improve more. Now the toffee and citrus have come out. Proper Bual weight and sweetness still. Good acidity and a decent finish. Flavors a bit muddled and only decent concentration. Right now I'd give it 90 points. I'll see it it continues to imrove.

[Marco D.]

Glad to see you had a good showing with this wine. Mine was less than pleasurable. These were my notes:

When first opened, this showed odd, funky, rubbery aromas. After 4 days decanting the aromas seemed to have gotten better, but when this wine was poured at the tasting, those odd, tired, dull, oxidized (in a bad way) aromas came back. Perhaps they never really went away and I was just hoping they would. To its credit, it showed better on the palate than on the nose, but this was not good.
10/18/2008
(75)

[Eric Ifune]

I think we have similar notes the first several days after opening. How long did you keep yours?
Day two was almost as bad as when just opened. I didn't touch again for 2.5 weeks after opening and it had improved quite a bit by then. That aroma I called rancio was particularly unpleasent. I think you called it odd, tired, oxidized in a bad way. Much of that abated. Maybe it just needed lots and lots of air. After that Leacock tasting, I'm more inclined to give some of these wines a long, long decant time.

[Marco D.]

If I recall correctly, I gave it a week of decanting. Glad to see it eventually came around.

[Eric Ifune]

Had another glass. Little of the really unpleasent aromas left. I'm thinking this needed 3 full weeks of air time.

Oh, and I bought some of the AG Pacheco from the Leacock collection based on your note from the NY tasting. I'm thinking of giving this 2-3 weeks of air time based on your note and this experience with the Christopher's Bual.