Help!! Identifying Wines from Estate Sale

Hi,

I have found my way to this site in the hopes that I may be able to call upon the knowledge and expertise of forum members in identifying some of the following wines. There was an online estate sale last week here in Calgary, and two of my bids were successful on lots. I know a little about wine, but I have not had much luck in finding out about some of the bottles.

From the information provided in the auction listing, all of these wines were stored ‘in the proper fashion’, but they have moved between locations in Western Canada over the course of the last few years. The bottles, labels, and caps are all in decent to very good condition. I will give a bit of a description below and attach the relevant photos for the bottles that remain mysterious despite some attempts at Googling for details. TYIA for any/all help that can be provided.

** One of the lots was six bottles of German riesling – 1x 1959, 1x 1970, 3x 1973, 1 w/o date. I got this lot for a relative song (less than $100 Canadian), mostly having read about the 1959 vintage. All of the labels look/read the same, so I have only attached a photo of the 1959. It seems in good condition(?), and all of the caps are made of what seems to be a plastic material. The 1970 is rather low in the bottle and the 1973 are of varying heights – really much more for the experience of drinking ‘something older than me’…

** The other lot was seven bottles – 3x an unknown Spanish red, 3x 1991 Costera Cannonau di Sardegna, and 1x Chilean 1987 Tocornal Fond de Cave. I was able to find some information about the Costera but not that particular vintage. The interesting bottle for me was the 1987 Tocornal, but I have not been able to find any matches for that specific label. It seems that it may be affiliated with Concha y Toro in some way…? The Spanish red has no year or producer so far as I can tell – maybe something just to open and see how it has survived?

I turn it over to any who might be able to offer some insight. Thank you so much and take good care of yourselves!

Can you post higher res images? I can’t read much on these labels.

Rookie mistake – sorry about that!

These might be better…?




Thanks again.

I’ve never heard of Marxen, the Riesling producer, or the vineyard. It’s in the Ruwer Valley (=Ruwerer). You may be pushing your luck with a Spatlese that old. I’d feel a lot safer if it were an Auslese or higher level.

Thank you, John.

1959 was an excellent vintage in the Ruwer. The vineyard was hard to track down - it’s not one of the heralded ones from the region.

The Ruwer is also a place where there is a lot of acid in the wines - this could still be very drinkable, and looks like a recorked wine (the label is just too new) I am guessing this is still quite drinkable -

I think that may be right. I’m a bit surprised at the clarity and color of the ‘59 as well. C$100 seems worth the risk

I didn’t mean to suggest that a '59 Spatlese would necessarily be over the hill. Just that there is a greater possibility than if it it were an Auslese or higher Pradikat.

If the unknown Spanish red is the Valdepenas it is a fairly rough and ready Rioja substitute, often very oak matured, and very cheap in Spain. Usually drink and forget it.

Thank you all so much for your replies!

The Valdepenas is indeed the unknown Spanish red – I kind of figured that it would be something of a standard wine; one may be opened tonight.

I am hopeful that the '59 riesling has held up – trying to figure out possible temperature and decanting methods for consumption at the appropriate time. Any thoughts in that regard would be most welcome!

Still trying to dig around for information about the Tocornal. There are brief references to the name in some articles, but I haven’t been able to come across anything that provides me much insight into what it is. It also seems that older Chilean wines aren’t so suitable for long aging – WS and the like don’t have much favourable in their charts. We shall see.

Take good care.

No laws back then on the German wines. 1959 was a huge year (wine weight) in Germany, more so on the Rhine than the Ruwer, but I’d expect it to be much bigger than your average MSR wine. Spatlese back then just meant late harvest. No rules as to sugar levels. Could be dry or sweet.

Opening one of the Valdepenas bottles proved that it is indeed a cheap Spanish red. Heavily oxidized, not much going on other than tasting something like port…

Try some of the others in due course.