First off, thank you Julian for passing along this bottle. Once I got past the crumbling, decrepit cork and strained out all of the nasty bits, I was left with a fairly young, Port-like looking wine, which was a bit of a surprise. Yay! It's not dead yet! Heck, it's not even all that brown or watery at the rim just yet, which is very much a surprise after all these years.
Jammy, stewed prunes blanket the glass; soft, warm smells of cedar boxes and patent medicines complement it well. It all smells like something you'd find at a bake sale in rural England, suggesting sweet spices from the Empire juxtaposed against fine local dairy products, the buttery esters bumping up against clove and ginger.
The line of the wine seems a bit confused at this point, starting off mostly just acidic, but it recedes quickly to reveal a very soft, slightly sweet, definitely relatively old wine that offers up fairly simple blackcurrant and cassis notes at first, supported somewhat on the finish by tannins that seem pretty much entirely resolved at this point. It all finishes in a very gentle, smooth glide towards something like a blackcurrant jam and maple syrup tart; there's still enough tannic backbone to make it come across as 'serious', though, if that sort of thing is important to you.
All in all, it seems to me that this wine is just about ready to head for the door for all time, though, so drink 'em if you've got 'em. If you're a fan of mature cabernet, this comes pretty close to good, although I would have liked a bit more oak influence here, a bit more spine.
Jammy, stewed prunes blanket the glass; soft, warm smells of cedar boxes and patent medicines complement it well. It all smells like something you'd find at a bake sale in rural England, suggesting sweet spices from the Empire juxtaposed against fine local dairy products, the buttery esters bumping up against clove and ginger.
The line of the wine seems a bit confused at this point, starting off mostly just acidic, but it recedes quickly to reveal a very soft, slightly sweet, definitely relatively old wine that offers up fairly simple blackcurrant and cassis notes at first, supported somewhat on the finish by tannins that seem pretty much entirely resolved at this point. It all finishes in a very gentle, smooth glide towards something like a blackcurrant jam and maple syrup tart; there's still enough tannic backbone to make it come across as 'serious', though, if that sort of thing is important to you.
All in all, it seems to me that this wine is just about ready to head for the door for all time, though, so drink 'em if you've got 'em. If you're a fan of mature cabernet, this comes pretty close to good, although I would have liked a bit more oak influence here, a bit more spine.
Leave a comment