Community Tasting Note

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Saturday, September 25, 2021 - My greatest day of wine (over)consumption. Ever. (Aaron and Tiffany's pad): ok, we finally hit the end of homage to conspicuous overconsumption of vinified beverages, and we do so with a Bikini Atoll-sized blast--surprise, surprise!--brought by A_M, chasing the Tusk, kind of like that mid 80s playoff game with Bird and 'Nique, where each would follow the other, hitting a further out and more off balance 3, leaving you breathless and not sure quite you saw. We were properly awed by the age of this wine, if flummoxed by the label and cork, which looked as if they had been glued and input, respectively, 5 minutes before our arrival, so new you could practically smell the ink. Our awe turned to gasps of horror, as this came out of the bottle in glops, with a color the combination of military green, used motor oil brown and an extrusion after a night of too much tequilla, from what I've heard, not that I have experience in such things. If the Amarone had a note of the concoction the witches whipped up in MacBeth, this doubles that, then put through a strainer for further concentration by the witches' demented great uncle, Ted Kaczynski, then blasts it out through an 80s boombox. There's nary a trace of tannins nor acidity--if you want that, move on to another CT entry--yet there's a wonderful savoriness that keeps the whole endeavor aloft, not unlike the slim piece keeping the Jenga tower from tumbling, and aloft it stays; in fact, I may still be tasting it. I could try, but ultimately couldn't come close to, matching csimm's description of the individual elements, but what I notice in his description, and my thoughts, both then and thinking back, is that the fruit isn't high among them--I'd also add burnt creme brulee as a descriptor, but don't get me started--but there are black cherries, currants, figs and prunes. The whole thing gives the experience of Thomas Dolby's line, "drinking heavy water through a stone", which of course I had to youtube 40 years later, with a large dose of absinthe thrown in, and yet, and yet . . . it didn't suck, being even more fun to consume than it's been to write about. Not only the most interesting wine I've ever eaten--plagiarism #2 of csimm--and with a steak knife to boot, but the most interesting I've ever drank. The complexity of this is mindbending, the persistence and intensity at least as much so; just as we thought we could relax our palates, the Albala pulled us back in again, Fredo. Went well enough with my wife's wonderful plum torte, except that it kind of obliterated it entirely, as it would any food I could think of between now and next Wednesday, although those with medical dispensations seemed to be enjoying it with their cigars. I leave knowing where this is in its tasting window to others with greater dessert wine knowledge and bandwith, but I do note that, somehow, some way, these better fortified wines, even with no apparent acidity and tannins, seem to go on forever (formaldehyde?). To say that was singular is almost an insult to singular, and I'm left utterly bereft in knowing how to score it, but I come up with my nosebleedingly high number for its wonderous complexity and uniqueness, gratitude to A_M for all, and relief that this event, no matter how extraordinary, was complete, my mind, tasting palate and everything else, at least in some form, intact.

Postscript: With Goldan's completely fair, constructively critical comment in mind and fully cognizant of my grandiloquent, narcissistic prose above, here's a more narrative, traditional summary: This comes out of the bottle a not particularly pleasing shade of green-brown-deep yellow, not so much as liquid but something closer to motor oil. Notes of figs, dates, super sweet cherries, raisins, prunes and cassis mix with secondary flavors of toffee, caramel, marzipan, the deep forest, and Xmas fruitcake to produce something powerful but teetering on the edge of sickly sweet, but pulled back by a savoriness (there are no apparent tannins or acidity to do this work), that, once you get over the unfamiliarity, is delicious. This will be a polarizing quaff for sure, but I loved it, for its uniqueness for sure, but even as a standalone drink, although I may have been influenced because of the extraordinarily great personal circumstances surrounding our consumption. I have no familiarity with how this will age and it's drinking well now, but I note that, despite a lack of typical structure, that is, tannins and acidity, many of the better of these fortified wines go on forever. If you like fortified wines and this is within your wine spend, this is highly recommended.

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