TN: 1990 Prager Aria White "Port"

[Andy Velebil]

Generously provided by Alex R. From the label it appears this was bottled sometime in late 1992. It's listed at 18.9% abv and label also gives the following info;

made from 100% Chardonnay grapes from the Napa Valley
Must - 30.6 brix
5% Residual sugar by wgt.
.65 total acidity by volume
3.5pH
24 months barrel aging
5 ppm total natural occurring sulfites.
150 cases produced
(there is no mention of fortifying this, but I assume it was since the brix was only 30.6 at harvest)

Since I always love throwing a blind bottle into the mix, Alex got his revenge on my by serving this to me totally blind. The color of this is a golden straw with only the faintest hint of some red showing in the background. I must say it has held its color remarkably well after almost 20 years. However, the nose showed some prominent oxidation overlaying citrus fruits. A lighter bodied wine that still retains good acidity and some tannins that show up mid-palate. While there is some oxidation on the palate as well, the acidity and citrus zest provide sufficient lift to keep this quite interesting. It's not a super complex wine, but one which has just enough going on to keep me interested. Not to mention having several glasses of this. At this stage of its life I'm not sure this would have a large appeal to most drinkers, unless you happen to like some oxidative notes on your wines. Like the palate, the finish isn't very complex, but it still has good lift and long length to keep me interested in it. I don't see this getting any better with age, and it probably would have better a few years ago, but it's still a darn nice bottle. 87 points