by TomHill » Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:37 pm
We had these three last night at BacchusBadBoys:
1. AlbanVnyds Viognier TBA EdnaVlly (9.1%) 2000: Dark gold/brnished bronze color; intense botrytis/apricotty/peach marmalade rather pear/peach/Viog fairly toasty/smokey/oak slight herbal very complex beautiful nose; soft quite sweet intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty some toasty/oak/tobaccoy very complex flavor; very long/lingering intense botrytis/apricotty some pear/peach/Viog quite sweet some tobaccoy/oak finish; a bright very alive TBA that will still go yrs.
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2. Dow's Porto Vintage SilverJubilee (20.6%; 25'th year of the reign of H.M.QueenElizabeth II) 1977: Rather light garnet bit cloudy some bricking color; very strong spirty/alcoholic some cedary classic oldPort complex beautiful nose; soft some alcoholic/spirity bit cedary/smokey lightly sweet quite complex oldPorto flavor w/ light/fully resolved tannins; very long/lingering complex spirity finish; no fruit left to speak of and loads of spirity slightly sweet complex character. $20.30 (Q)
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3. Bodegas Toro Albala Don PX GranReserva (17%) 1971: Very dark/black color; intense raisened/pruney intense PX some complex nose; very sweet very intense raisened/pruney very intense PX bit complex finish; very long/lingering very sweet/syrupy intense raisened/pruney/PX finish; not a lot of complexity and sorta in suspended animation; will live forever.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Alban: I have long maintained that heavy botrytis destroys varietal character, at least as I recognize it. Multiple times I've tasted side-by-side Novarro's BA/TBA from GWT/Riesling and could not tell the varietal, though just vague generic differences. This Alban TBA was one that I thought the Viog varietal character showed thru the botrytis. I would guess that it was harvested in the low-30's Brix.
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2. Dow: Is one of my favorite vintage Portos because it not as sweet as most Portos. I have only limited experience with old Portos, but I usually find them dominated w/ an alcoholic burn to them. This '77 had lost all of its fruit and mostly only alcohol remained, but it wasn't a burning/fumey alcohol...more of a spirity alcohol like an old Cognac. This was terrific w/ the spiced/sweet nuts and Stilton.
Tom