I should start off by saying that the Warre's 1983 is probably my favourite VP. By no means is it the best that I have ever had, but the memories I associate with it are what make it special. This is the first VP that I ever bought in any quantity. I was working in London in the first job I had after college and was sharing an office with a wine nut who was probably 5 years older than me, he was really into bordeaux and was the person who introduced me to the different styles and variations that the region can offer.
Just around the corner from the office was a small, independent wine merchant. The merchant used to organise informal tastings in the evenings for his customers and I gradually got to know him quite well. Of course, at Christmas his tastings would include a number of different ports and he would often include 2-3 VP's in the tasting. I used to buy single bottles of VP from him occasionally, buying mostly wines from 1970, 75 and 1980.
One day I visited the wine merchant and he was taking in a delivery of some wines that were being sold off by one of his clients badly affected by the recession in the UK in the late '80s. Amongst the wines being delivered were some half bottles of Warre's 1983 vintage. From memory, this was around 1987-8 so the Warre's must have been only recently shipped. After some bartering, the wine merchant agreed to sell me a case of 24 halves for £2 per half bottle. For less than £50, I walked (well, staggered) away from his shop that lunchtime with my first case of VP. I still have 3 of those halves left and when I opened the most recent one last year, it was wonderful.
Anyway, back to this bottle. This was a full bottle that I purchased from Threshers Off Licence in Leadenhall Market in London in early April. The bottle was in good condition, with a clean label and a well preserved capsule, no signs of cork protrusion.
But when I came to take the cork out, I was horrified. Underneath the pristine capsule were those terrifying little nodules of cork - the evil weevil had been at work
The cork came out in one piece, but sure enough, the cork was riddled with burrow holes. One hole even went right the way through to the base of the cork.Surprisingly though, the cork had held its seal. I managed to get it out whole (which is unusual) and it made a satisying pop when that last bit came out of the neck. I couldn't read any of the branding, either it had been eaten by weevils or had just become distorted and stained with age.
The wine decanted off the sediment very easily, but suffered from a bit of bottle stink. Nothing pleasant about this as it was decanted.
12 hours later, I took this note.
Deep red/brown in colour. Intense and dark. Stink has gone and is replaced by a nose of wet leather and stewed autumn fruits. Reminds me of the hedgerow smells when picking blackberries on a wet and cold October morning. A flash of hot spirit. Swirling just makes the heat come out more strongly.
Dry entry, no sweetness or fruit - in fact, not much of anything. Nice acidic backbone to it. Lots of work in the mouth developed a nice but faint complex of prunes and marzipan. No tannins to speak of.
But the aftertaste is quite something and does not go with the rest of what this wine shows. Very long and changes. Starts with stewed blueberries and molasses and slowly changes to coffee and dark chocolate....and astonishingly long - lasting well over a minute and maybe even reaching two! Overall rating of 86/100.
If I were presented blind the wines from this bottle and the BB&R bottle I would not have recognised them as the same wine. Sadly, I think this is at least partly because of the affect that the weevils have had on the Warre labelled bottle as the BB&R bottle was much better in my opinion. I think the length on the Warre bottle also gave a distinct clue as to how good the wine could have been.
As others have said, there are no good wines, only good bottles!
Alex
