Who would have expected a 45 yr old Crianza to be anything but vinegar? So delicate and lovely. The wine is mature on the nose but so youthful in the mouth. Aromas of dried plums, potpourri, leather, and earth. Just a tiny bit of that not-so-nice soy sauce that you can get in old wine. An amazing amount of youthful acidity in the mouth, cherries and red raspberries on the taste with just a bit of earthiness and leathery flavors at the back end. The length is medium, the complexity is good-not-great, but the feel of the wine in the mouth is straight up sexy. Sexy might not be a technical term, but it’s the best descriptor I can come up with.
Despite its age and rarity, this is a wine to simply enjoy and not analyze too much. For me, the drinking experience here is one of texture and gestalt as opposed to naming all the individual flavors and aromas. The wine is simple, delicate, and pretty. This association might be a stretch, but it reminds me of a time when I went to a natural history museum in Boston and saw these 100 yr old flowers made out of super thin hand-blown glass. This wine is like that, beautiful, subtle, and very delicate. A few hours open and the wine starts to decline- if you have a bottle, I’d say drink it now and handle carefully.
