1959 Montecillo Especial Gran Reserva Rioja

I extracted this out of a thread that included notes on 9 older Spanish reds as it deserves to be honored for its showing at age 62 and also supports the idea of long term cellaring of these wines:

1959 MONTECILLO SELCCION ESPECIAL GRAN RESERVA RIOJA- I`d been waiting for just the right occasion to open this bottle which appeared to be reconditioned as the bottle and label was in pristine condition; there was no doubt the cork was the original one once it was pulled by a Durand with at least 1/3 barely intact; I decanted it for about 20 minutes; the initial nose suggested TCA presence; it had a nice texture, body and length, but the wet cardboard was not appreciated; I almost tossed it, but held it for a later visit and when that happened, there was not even a hint of TCA and now it has wonderful spice and and an unexpected pepper note, mindful of a N. Rhone, blueberry and is really good; and for being age 62, it’s committed nicely to surviving.

Cheers,
Blake
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It’s good that you stayed with it. Not saying this is you, but with people not familiar with opening old wines, they’re not used to the “bottle funk” that they’ll initially experience when the bottle is first opened. I think a lot of old wine gets tossed out as being “bad” when it would have been great once the funk has blown off.

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I’m pretty much familiar with the initial funk many wines blow off, especially as related to sulphur compounds, but in this case and with a few others on this night, it seemed to be clearly TCA. Also, I’m seated with some other educated palates and we all agreed at least on the wet cardboard aromas and even some continuation in the taste.
And, I decanted this wine too.

I totally agree, many wines are tossed before they have an opportunity to blow off gases/ funk and our group probably has more than most since we tend to open way too many wines and don’t give them the chance to express.

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Great note. My anecdotal/life experience is that I have more problems with taint with Spanish corks than other regions, and I’m general not very sensitive to TCA.

Had to pour out a gran reserva last month :frowning:

Reminds me of the old James Bond quote during a craps game: “it’s all in the cork” or was it “it’s all in the wrist”? Sorry, my corny Kansas sense of humor showed up.

There’s some kind of bottle funk on old wines specifically that can smell a lot like TCA, but does seem to blow off.

Whatever it is, it was prominent on this night with a few bottles. So, what is this and what can be done to minimize or eliminate it aside from decanting?

I have no idea what it is. I’ve only found decanter time to help. I’ll be interested if someone knows more.

The only thing that eliminates it is air. So you have two choices: decant or slow-ox.

With wines that are over 50 years old, I prefer to slow-ox them for several hours before service and then pour them gently to not disturb the sediment. I’ve found that this works best with wines of this age that may not respond well to the big gulp of air they’ll get with decanting. Since 1959 is my birth year, I’ve opened a pretty good amount of wines from that vintage and never had a bad bottle when following the slow-ox method.

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Good info John- many thanks

I actually think the incidence of cork taint is fundamentally higher on these older wines. I don’t think the cork vendors were taking all the care they have adopted in the modern era, as they are now threatened by other technologies. And there may not have been as much analysis around this concern 50 years ago.

Bottom line: I don’t think decanting/aeration/slow ox etc. cures anything. Consumers just have to accept a higher loss rate on older wines - above and beyond the normal bottle variation / cork integrity - that comes from a different sanitary era. I was listening to a podcast with Lopez de Heredia’s Maria ______ while walking the beast this morning and she was discussing how they have problems with cellar moths attacking their corks. (She encourages spiders to resolve the problem)

I agree that cork taint rates were probably higher back then, but we aren’t saying air cures cork taint. We’re talking about something else. Cork taint does not go away with air. The people I’ve talked to who have the most experience with really old wines are all familiar with this phenomenon that we’re calling bottle funk. I’ve seen it quite a few times myself.

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Thanks Doug for responding as I would have with the same points.

As Doug mentioned, we’re not talking about cork taint at this point. It’s really more about the old bottle funk that many people confuse with a “bad bottle” if they’re not used to it.

That said, perhaps I’ve been lucky, but I’ve never had a bad cork in all the 50+ year-old wine I’ve opened, and fortunately that’s been a lot of bottles.

+1, including the birth year. It’s as though John signed his name to my post!

Cheers,
Warren