For The Love Of Port

6/25/2014 rated 95 points: $60/750 ml; Solera 1830, purchased by Osborne at the time Domecq sherry stores were auctioned off.



Allied Domecq Wines USA, importer. UPC 633438012965. 19 pabv, from a Solera begun 1830. Bottle code LG 072 G1J.

T-Cork; square bottle profile. Color of wine is brown-green and rich.

Scents: Caramel, milk chocolate with mild beaten pepper and a hint of acidity on the nose. Underlain with veal broth and hints of truffles.

Opens in the mouth with tobacco and tremendous skin energy at first; with savory ripe green pepper, Bavarian pretzel crust, and delicate mushroom/veal broth. Plenty of room to grow in the decanter, and should be followed there. Seemingly more potential than the last bottle. A great wine; tremendous harmony, integration, and disciplined power. 95/100 now.

Glue resin and white China tea, with honey scent at 5 days, with a beautiful integration of other aromas. Still has great energy, brothiness, and meat/vegetable/spice melange. Would recommend with hot soup made with beef, venison, game bird, or veal, with a dollop of the wine as an ingredient.

At over a year and a half since opening, and after six months in decanter, I think I begin to get a hint of over-oxidation. Strange how long this took to show. Still repays attention, but no more aging is re(95 pts.) Drink 2014-2044+.

I actually ran across one of those old bottles many years ago, prior to the VORS system, and the 30 year old in comparison shows it needs some more aging, either in the bottle or in the decanter. I'm eating a wonderful chicken and noodles that is a specialty of St Paul's E and R church here in Piqua, usually made for some one or other of the fall celebrations.

John,
So this is an Osborne wine, bottled some time ago? Before the current VOR, VORS system?
I've some old Sandeman Sherries and some more recent Valdespino ones. A few ancient bottles as well, which I'm trying to find out more about.

Eric Ifune wrote:John,
So this is an Osborne wine, bottled some time ago? Before the current VOR, VORS system?
I've some old Sandeman Sherries and some more recent Valdespino ones. A few ancient bottles as well, which I'm trying to find out more about.

Hello, Colonel. So good always to hear from you.

This was a Domecq wine that was purchased and marketed by Osborne. I had 2 previous bottles of it with a Domecq label and bit when I saw this current bottling, since I loved the previous ones so much. It's to my taste obviously the same sherry, with less bottle age--the other two were abused shelf orphans, but you know that Sherry often benefits from conditions that would hurt other wines. Those two orphan bottles were pre-VORS, but this was not.

I have twice mentioned to Roy that I thought we should have a sherry forum here. He doesn't see the critical mass yet, but suggested that we post on this Other Conversations forum. If you're game, write again with some names and I'll tell you what I know of them. If anything. There are some extremely exciting bottlings and other things going on in sherry right now, and some bargains still to be had. For instance, there is a Domecq Silbarita for auction on WineBid, another pre-VORS bottling, which should be drinking well right now, but I just spent $35 on a Valdespino Palo Cortado there and didn't bite on that.

Another thing of interest is the en rama bottlings that are being sold now. A fine one that is extremely good deal is the Tio Pepe. These are selections from special casks bottled unfined and unfiltered. They would mostly be 'averaged out' in a huge bottling of thousands of casks otherwise, and cost in the range of $30 a 750, superb drinking now, well beyond the average Tio Pepe (Amontillado) bottling, and being highly ageworthy as well.

We're headed to Europe next month and will be traveling from Hungary down river to Amsterdam on Viking. If you're in the vicinity we should look into hooking up. I'm at Rieslingrat@aol.com if you want to write.

Unfortunately will be working in Arizona next month, not that that's a bad thing, but it isn't Europe.
I've been drinking more Sherry lately as well. If you can ever make it to one of the Sherryfests that Peter Liem puts on, it is a great event. This year's was in NYC, next year will be in San Francisco. Most of the leading producers will come and there is a series of masterclasses. They'll pour the good stuff. I've been drinking quite a bit of the Valdespino Manzanilla en Rama out of half bottles. Another wine I'm fascinated by is the vintage Palo Cortado and Olorosos. Rarely seen in the states.