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Old Tawny


Waitman

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So, a co-worker moves to Geneva to go to business school ("you'd love it here. If it ever walked the earth they sell it in the markets") and since he's the IT guy he bequeaths a rathole full of cables and parts and ultimate Frisbee memorabilia to his replkacement amongst which I notice one day a bottle of 1952 Porto Moreira Colheita. I ask the new guy if it's his, he says, "no," do I want it?

Hell yeah.

It's cloudy, so I set it upright for a month to see if things settle out but they don't. Nonetheless, before tossing the bottle I open it (what the heck, right?) and have a sip. The only other time I've had vintage tawny in my life was when Slater served a glass to go with razor clam chowder at Citronelle. Now, my taste memory isn't photographic, but the cloudy stuff tastes damn similar to the good stuff Mark served and, despite the Madeira-like taste any fortified wine tends towards, doesn't taste madeirized. In fact, it's not bad.

Shouldn't it be? Shouldn't the cloudiness indicate some fatal flaw, and doesn't this mean my palate is as dead as the wine? Or is this a common occurance among tawneys? (And, instead of posting, should I be at Bourbon this minute letting the experts have a taste?).

Illumination, even if short of full enlightenment, is appreciated.

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So, a co-worker moves to Geneva to go to business school ("you'd love it here. If it ever walked the earth they sell it in the markets") and since he's the IT guy he bequeaths a rathole full of cables and parts and ultimate Frisbee memorabilia to his replkacement amongst which I notice one day a bottle of 1952 Porto Moreira Colheita. I ask the new guy if it's his, he says, "no," do I want it?

Hell yeah.

It's cloudy, so I set it upright for a month to see if things settle out but they don't. Nonetheless, before tossing the bottle I open it (what the heck, right?) and have a sip. The only other time I've had vintage tawny in my life was when Slater served a glass to go with razor clam chowder at Citronelle. Now, my taste memory isn't photographic, but the cloudy stuff tastes damn similar to the good stuff Mark served and, despite the Madeira-like taste any fortified wine tends towards, doesn't taste madeirized. In fact, it's not bad.

Shouldn't it be? Shouldn't the cloudiness indicate some fatal flaw, and doesn't this mean my palate is as dead as the wine? Or is this a common occurance among tawneys? (And, instead of posting, should I be at Bourbon this minute letting the experts have a taste?).

Illumination, even if short of full enlightenment, is appreciated.

If you don't have a centrifuge right at hand, I'd put it through a paper coffee filter. :P

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My centrifuge is actually designed more to refine yellowcake uranium for peaceful purposes -- screw solar panels, I want my own turbines -- and I'm wondering if the flotsam is too fine to be caught by a coffee filter. Kind of reminds me of the grunge in a nice, unfiltered Chard. I'll give it a go, though.

But the larger issue is: in Tawneys, a modest cloudiness is not the sign of a dead wine? Any time I've ever seen a bottle of red wine similarly opaque, it's smelled like sweat socks or a damp basement, whereas this one smells (and tastes OK).

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