1875 Barbeito Madeira Malvasia Reserva Velha
It was just a couple weeks ago and it was sublime.
Does a “cask sample” qualify? Here goes. Some years ago, the chief of cardiology at the hospital associated with the University of Strasbourg was giving me a tour of the hospital’s facilities. After the tour, he asked if I was interested in tasting from barrel a white wine produced in 1647 (give or take a decade). We made our way to the basement, where the giant barrel was locked inside a metal cage. He opened the cage, drew a sample, and I took a sip. The color was dark rust, and oxidized beyond comprehension. As a courtesy, I swallowed. OMG. And perhaps in a bit of hyperbole, the good doctor told me that not only did I just taste history, but that in the past, whenever President Mitterand visited, he was never offered a taste!
Do they have several hospitals in Strasbourg all having century-old wines in their cellars? Because I remembered the wine being older than being from 16-something. A bit of googling and, ta-da: it’s 1472.
Unless, of course, you’ve been drinking some other old wine.
I remembered that there was some other ridiculously old wine that was consumed in minuscule amounts and topped off with a fresh new wine, resulting in a sort of perpetual reserve that’s ridiculously old for the most part. Or perhaps it’s the same wine but they’ve changed their policies?
Oh you little liar! I have it on good authority that it was Pliny the Younger who was in your first tasting group. I recall reading it in his tome on the art of punctuation and his battles with his nemesis Thoma Collis.
I visited only one hospital in Strasbourg, so cannot comment if other hospitals hold very old wines in their cellars. I do seem to remember the doctor telling me the wine was from 1647, but of course I could be wrong and the cask sample I tasted was from an earlier century.
1907 Bual. I did have 1900 Mouton from magnum in my glass but the nose told me it was absolutely dead and I didn’t want to know anymore.
1953 Margaux.
Jealous of all the 19th century wines consumed, even more so of the 18th.
Nice! Lol.
Here’s what I’ve had:
1900 D’Oliveiras Madeira Verdelho
1903 D’Oliveiras Madeira Boal
1932 D’Oliveiras Madeira Verdelho
1959 Château Angélus
1963 Fonseca
I’ve got in my cellar some interesting old wines not yet drunk, including:
1880 D’Oliveiras Madeira Terrantez
1948 & 58 Vega-Sicilia Único
1952 C.V.N.E. Rioja Viña Real Reserva Especial
1953 & 59 Huet Vouvray Moelleux
1958 Giuseppe Mascarello Barolo
1959 Château Angélus
1899 Seppelt 100 year old Tawny Port. It poured like syrup and was to die for.
Had a 1904 mag of Sauternes my Bro-in-law brought over. Don’t remember the vintner. It was close to brown in color, tasted like a top end Sherry.
Pounded a bottle of the legendary 1953 Margaux in the late 1970s and it was in the top ten of the
greatest Bordeaux I’ve ever had. The 1953 Palmer wasn’t too shabby either!
How was your bottle and when did you consume it?
TTT
1886 Taylor Port at the Society of Wine Educators meeting in Portland. It was amazingly good.
Of course it might be that you just can’t found a new hospital in Strasbourg unless you have a cask of wine that’s at least 300 years old. Some sort of local legislative peculiarities.
Did a tasting a tasting at Puig Parahÿ which included several from the 1890s.
We’ve also had a good assortment at trips to Bern’s.
We’re doing an 1889 Madeira at an offline in September.
1973 Yago Sangria (NV) in 1975
1887 Lafite
Do you know if it was bottled around that time or much later? Any idea what part of the Rhone?
Of all the incredible bottles listed so far, I’m most fascinated by the 1791 Rhone, even if it tasted like celery. Fortified and sweet wines can last in barrel for decades, and bottles of Bordeaux from that time appear every now and then, but I just assumed that any Rhone that was bottled around that time was added to Bordeaux or Burgundy.
From memory:
1889 Gruaud Larose
1890 Chateau Margaux
1895 Pichon Baron
1896 Chateau Lafite
All but the Gruaud were really good. I’ve also had a lot of Bordeaux and Burgundies from the early 1900s.
From the auction catalog, four bottles of the 1791 Galbert Rhone was auctioned off at the 11th Heublein auction in 1979. The bottles came from a “lost cellar” in a mansion near Lyon. The mansion was turned into apartments in the early 20th century and the cellar forgotten about. The bins had enamel tags which was used to identify the wines. There were other Rhones too, 1825 Lanerthe and 1832 Ermitage.
According to the Heublein Auction Catalog, this wine (among many others) was discovered in a hidden cellar near Lyon.
Thousands of bottles laid undisturbed in their marked bins.
So it’s fair to assume the vintage date was correct.
The tasting note read: “The wine is lively-good, delicately perfumed, clearly red colored, very fine and light in alcohol”
The wine I tasted bore no resemblance to this note.
I assume this difference was due to the tasting public getting the worse bottles available to sample, as the best ullaged bottles were put up for auction.
TTT
I was at a Heublein Auction Pre Tasting, could have been in '82/'83 in Los Angeles, and they were giving out tickets for a free taste and one didn’t know what wine one would get when they got to the front of the line. For me, I got a taste of 1870 Clos de Vougeot which was amazing.