100 point Moscatel?--Valdespino Sherry Toneles

[John Trombley]

I've seen more than one critical score, including RPs, that were at 100 points. Of course my prejudice is that there isn't any such thing as a perfect wine (if there were, I'd have to never drink another bottle, having satisfied my ultimate quest, which hasn't happened yet!) So this is a chance to see if I've finally tripped across a perfect wine. And since 15 points of the score are purely subjective impression, it's heads I win tails you lose anyway. So how did this magnificent sherry house do here in 90-plus-year-old solera wine from one of Andalusia's finest vineyards?

This wine does not have the 'Viejisimo' designation, nor does it have the 'back of bottle' information now required for Sherries. Obviously an older bottling, if so. The wine reviewed on CT under the Viejissimo label may be a later bottling.

N.V. Valdespino Moscatel Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Toneles (Spain, Andalucía, Jerez-Xérès-Sherry) (not muy viejisimo)!, $208/375 mls; 15 pabv. T-cap.

Opened on board Holland America Rotterdam to share with head cellarmaster. Was obviously extremely dense and flavorful but almost impenetrable, dense, and awkward.
Later at home in Ohio I allowed it to sit for about 3 months in the light and I gave it some air every so often by removing the T-cap for a few minutes; tasted today (3/14/2018) from copita.

A one-ounce pour was black to the center, red cherry concentrate color fading into brown/amber at the edge.

Caramel, brown sugar, tobacco, a tiny bit of anise, then on the palate firm, juicy acidity; rounded, high-toned muscat, vanilla-laced sweetness and a rather subtle, transparent nearly endless finish hinting of delicate, slightly grassy and with optimally ripe apple juice notes. If it were a symphony most of the bass and mid-notes would be dense and as yet unresolved and yet with what "Burghound" might call 'sailing topnotes'. Drink 2020 and much later. Should be allowed almost Madeira-like serving conditions.

About 97 points.

[Eric Ifune]

I like this wine a lot, but still think Setubal makes the best Moscatel based wood aged wines. I might need to drink more Rutherglen to be sure however. I believe the current labeling for the Toneles is with the VORS designation.

[John Trombley]

Thanks, Eric. I agree that the best Moscatos in the world are made on the peninsula of Setubal, with rare exceptions (perhaps old Madiera).

(I've got a Groot Constantia '09 that I'm going to try with the dregs of this Toneles).

Maybe there are still some Tsar-era Massandras from the Crimea, of which I've even yet to see a bottle, that I'll run into before the end. But I've never been impressed more than with the beautiful structured fruit of a good 20-year-old Fonseca, especially the Roxo. However, the best Rutherglens must be something to behold, and much less expensive, I deem, like the Calliope and its stable-mates.

[Glenn E.]

I've seen more than one critical score, including RPs, that were at 100 points. Of course my prejudice is that there isn't any such thing as a perfect wine (if there were, I'd have to never drink another bottle, having satisfied my ultimate quest, which hasn't happened yet!) So this is a chance to see if I've finally tripped across a perfect wine.

I don't believe that 100 points means perfect, because that would imply that there can only be one 100-point wine ever. So as I've described elsewhere, for me it needs to change my perception of wine (in a very good way) and that can easily happen more than once. I had it happen twice in one sitting, back-to-back.

This does sound like a great wine, though!

[Eric Ifune]

Is Constantia fortified? I've never researched it.
I've never had a Madeira that matched a really good Setubal, let alone a great one. I've only had one Muscat based Massandra wine, a 1959 Red Stone White Muscat. It was only OK. I've never had a great Massandra but have only had a few. Rutherglen is an area I'm interested in learning more about, but am not sure if the best wines make it to the States. Maybe a research trip down under?

[John Trombley]

At 14 percent alcohol for the 2009 version of the Vin de Constance, unlikely it's fortified; however, it's wood-aged in various oaks and acacia. If you look at the data sheet present on the producer website http://www.kleinconstantia.com/our-wine ... tance/2009, there is lots of talk about multiple tries and what seems like an effort to get passerilagé and raisined berries, and nothing about fortification. There is mention of a substance called essentia, that probably comes from some processing with the Trockenbeeren, and which may be blended back into the more standard late harvest musts.

I"m just mostly guessing about the possibilities of other great Moscato. I'll see if I can get a sip of this Constance. Off to the Coravin and le Taster!

2009 Klein Constantia (1865) Vin de Constance Natual Sweet Wine of South Africa (100 percent Muscat de Frontignan). Alcohol: 14 % vol; residual Sugar: 160 g/l; pH: 3.6; total acidity: 7.8 g/l

Bottle with unusual outcurve at bottom, the type of which I've never seen before. Thick black wax over cork closure. Medium sheeting and no tearing. Very light straw in color for this type of wine. Linden leaf and hints of linseed oil, (almost foxy); grape and peach juice, tingly and floral. Delicate acidity, lissome but with crisp and evident filigreed sweetness, and a combination of peppermint and wintergreen; on perhaps a 30 plus (second finish. 92/100; drink now through 2028.

Definitely not the same style as an old Setubal; a more elegant style; closest thing might be a VT or SGN Muscat from Alsace, at its best. Gives no organoleptic evidence of being fortified, nor is there any sense of Botrytis.

[John Trombley]

I've seen more than one critical score, including RPs, that were at 100 points. Of course my prejudice is that there isn't any such thing as a perfect wine (if there were, I'd have to never drink another bottle, having satisfied my ultimate quest, which hasn't happened yet!) So this is a chance to see if I've finally tripped across a perfect wine.

I don't believe that 100 points means perfect, because that would imply that there can only be one 100-point wine ever. So as I've described elsewhere, for me it needs to change my perception of wine (in a very good way) and that can easily happen more than once. I had it happen twice in one sitting, back-to-back. [cheers.gif]

This does sound like a great wine, though!

Glenn, we here have to listen to a certain RP repeat the word 'Perfect' over and over in reference to his own 100 point scores of wine. Most of us have a more sophisticated aesthetic. Perhaps you miss some of the drill where you live--and a good thing that is. I admire the man mightily as a wine critic, but not as a physiologist. I'm glad that you have a more nuanced view of so-called 'perfection', which of course doesn't exist except as an illusion in our own minds.

Always look forward to seeing your work on this forum!