the white red wine and the punchline.

 Last weekend, someone who'd been doing inventory a few hours came out of the lockers with a few bottles of this stuff, 1981 Miguel Torres Penedès Gran Coronas Reserva.  Some were a '78.  He said, "Do you have a dumpster?"  

I don't know if the wine was stored here its whole life, but it was so done this cabernet had lost its color.  Also, it had low fill.  I thought, I might want to open that and see what that means.  Later that day A. came in, and while he was too smart to take a bottle, he did open one and give it a swirl.  Not horrible.  

I was very curious now and when we were closed gave it a go.  I'd told myself not to expect anything from it other than what it was. 

It tasted like: a perfect balance of Scotch, mead, and cider, nice honey and floral notes, very unique and different.  I liked it.

In the next week I would give two bottles away.  Here is the tasting note for the '81:
     "Cheap sherried nose. Watery palate.  Not even a texture.  Smells and tastes like it is: wine that gave up the ghost a long time ago."  

Here's the tasting note from a '78 (which I think was still red)
    "Apparently someone had been doing some cleaning in their locker, looked at a bottle of this and noticed it was almost totally clear, with no pigmentation to speak of...I think this is usually a mix of Cab and Tempranillo, but the '78 vintage was 100% Cabernet.  The cork came out in one solid piece, and the wine was dark and clear.  The initial impression on the nose was really hot, and it took a few minutes for the fumes to calm down enough to pick up anything but alcohol.  When they did, it was all black currant, plum, tobacco, vanilla and leather.  Tannins were fully resolved, everything seemed balanced and delicious.

A lot of cherry, blackberry, vanilla, raspberry and a little dust."

And here's the punchline:

     "...as we were drinking it, a friend  came up and said he'd just seen a bottle of this when he was helping organize a wine locker in Glendale. We poured him a glass and he agreed with the table that the wine was fantastic.  Then we told him- yeah, this is one of the bottles you were throwing out;)

He couldn't believe it."

A-ha to a small world after all. 



(PART 2: Later that same day...) 

 
There was one more '78.  Quiet day @theCave today, and then a last minute rush of stragglers who would...straggle.  Opened this in the meantime.  The foil off, the cork was wet and crumbly.  Went with that two-pronged thingy and the cork just SUNK into the bottle.  Gave it a good swig anyway.  An oxidized watery grave, alas.  What a great bit of fun, either way!