Smith Woodhouse LBV 1984 [bottled 1988]
I haven't had any exposure or experience with an LBV this old. I'm on an road trip to the US, so found a lot of stuff we don't have readily available to us in Edmonton!
Stood the bottle for almost 2 days, simply because I was finishing a Ferreira 10 yr tawny, but also because I have not had a tremendous amount of time to get around to opening this bottle.
Attempted an Ah-so opening, but was unable to get the prongs deep enough to embrace the entire cork. After extracting less than 1 cm of it, just managed to prevent the cork from falling back down into the wine. Finished the job with a Swiss Army Knife corkscrew. Fortunately I figured I might need it (the Swiss Army Knife and brought it in my checked luggage,) and found it a relief when it extracted the remainder of the cork in one piece.
Standard driven cork of 1¾ inch length was stained extensively, almost down an entire inch on one half of the cork which may have been defective as it seemed "cracked" down the center. One half of the cork was stained really heavily, about an inch up into the cork, the other half had none. Interesting.
No decanter as I am in a hotel. The bar downstairs will not lend me a decanter for 10 minutes. They are invested though... they have several VPs and a great selection of Aged Tawny available. (As an aside, I understand these places have to make money, but $20 for a 2 oz pour of Warre's 85 VP that has likely been sitting open and upright for over three weeks that they KNOW ABOUT?!?! Come on... that is getting a bit ridiculous!)
I was disappointed with a lack of fruit and tannin structure in the nose. The colour is a light garnet fading to an alarming orange and brown on the edges. Almost a tawny colour.
The first sip overwhelmed me with sweetness. Very strong notes of over-ripe plums, some raisins, a bit of brown sugar, perhaps even a bit of maple syrup. No fruit that is prevalent.
I am suspecting the cork may have failed prematurely and allowed a bit of oxidization... this seems like a ten year tawny, albeit a GOOD 10 yr tawny. Very good.
Todd