Decant time - 1961 Krohn Colheita

[Carl D]

We're thinking about opening a bottle of 1961 Krohn Porto Colheita tonight at the social gathering following a tasting of Burgundy wines from the 1960's at UC Davis (the star of the night is a 1962 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands Échezeaux).

What decant time would you recommend for this colheita? Clearly we can't go more than a few hours at this point since the event is tonight. If pop-n-pour is likely to be nearly as good, that's probably what we'll do, but if anyone has experience that suggests a bit more air time, please let me know!

[Glenn E.]

An hour or two should be fine. Pop 'n' pour would also probably be fine, but that depends a little bit on when it was bottled. More time in bottle would lean me more toward giving it an hour or two of air before drinking just in case there's some small amount of bottle stink that needs to blow off.

[Carl D]

Thanks, Glenn, err, Mr. Tawny. We were thinking something along those lines too. I don't know the bottling date off hand (bottle is in off-site storage right now), but I think it's early to mid 2000's.

[Glenn E.]

Open the bottle and test a small sample. If it smells an tastes fine, stopper it up and put it in the fridge until closer to the tasting.

Though in reality, a Tawny that has spent 40-odd years in wood isn't going to be affected by even 3-4 hours in a decanter. It's pretty much already oxidized, right?

[Carl D]

In the end, we gave it about 2 hours in decanter, then back in bottle for another 2-3 hours before consuming it.

This is the first Krohn colheita that we've opened. Two things that surprised me about it compared to other older colheitas that we've opened: 1. It was very cloudy - downright muddy even. Even with decanting and filtering (twice, but not with cheesecloth) it was still quite cloudy. 2. The fruity nature of it. I imagine that this would be described as more of a Portuguese style, while the other old colheitas we've had (Noval) were more of the English style. We shared this wine with a couple of other wine afficionados, two sommeliers and the rep for a wine importer - everyone thought it was quite tasty.

[Andy Velebil]

Carl,
When was the Krohn bottled?

[Carl D]

Carl,
When was the Krohn bottled?

Hmm. Looks like my reply got lost somehow. It was bottled in 2006. We're drinking the last of it tonight - it's developed much more of the nutty flavors after being open for nearly a week. Still fruity too.

[Andy Velebil]

Carl,
I asked as your comment on being "muddy" usually tends to be a result of a Tawny that has been in bottle for some time. After which some Tawny's can throw a very fine sediment that, when disturbed, makes the Port look very muddy or cloudy as you described. One producer has mention this very fine sediment gets stirred up easily (often due to shipping, transporting, or shaking the bottle, etc) and can take months to settle back out and lose that cloudy appearance. Don't know if that's the case with yours, just tossing a possibility out there.

[Carl D]

Final thoughts on this bottle - here it is, day 19, and the remain of the bottle have been simply sitting on our kitchen counter with a t-stopper in the bottle. Compared to the first couple of days, the fruit flavors are greatly diminished, with the nutty flavors coming to the forefront, and the heat reduced. The remaining sediment has all settled to the bottom and a careful pour produced a crystal-clear glass of brown elixir. Still a very nice glass of tawny!