Haha - Otto, of course you’ve already done a vertical of it! I’ll defer to your much better sample size.
However, I will provide one counter date point. I had the 2019s last Tuesday at the winery and did find them very distinctive. My thoughts was that they were too distinctive and needed time to settle in.
Never noticed this thread before. After drinking so many of the wines mentioned here for a long time now, I’m all-in on Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Blanco Reserva (not the Gran Reserva, which is of course outstanding too).
I’ll mention one more folks have mentioned. Vatan. which I love, doesn’t rise to most interesting to me because it’s not quite sui generis like the LdH. It’s very close in style to Francois Cotat Culs de Beaujeau even if more intense typically.
Thanks guys, definitely worth trying 
!
I am planning on opening a bottle of the Abbesses tomorrow for Thanksgiving and decided to search and bump to see if anyone has recent thoughts on the beverage.
I know Phil T. has a post in the What Wine did you Open thread from Sep 2024. The bottles I acquired have a different label, appear older - not that that matters much for a boiled beverage stiffened with Marc.
Best serving temp - 55? Best serving glass?
I opened another one in July of this year:
Such a crazy nose and palate on this. Spices galore, quince, candied citrus, a slightly medicinal herbal quality to it. Rich, sweet but enough acidity to carry it through. We enjoyed this with a chocolate lava cake. Perfect match as the wine was sweeter than the dessert.
55 sounds about right but I wouldn’t hesitate to serve colder and let it warm in the glass. I wouldn’t worry too much about stemware, there’s enough aromatics in there to overcome stemware. I had it in a GGG and in a INAO glass. Both worked. Another option would be something similar to the CIVJ glass:
Thank you!
Did you end up moving back to Canada?
Yes.
And I’m okay with it…
How about joining the national wine tasting team? It looks like they need all the help they can get.
Sorry for thread drift.
Our team captain wasn’t up to his usual efforts:
