A 30 year old table wine?

[Roy Hersh]

Yep, last night I opened a bottle of 1994 Quinta do Passadouro. This is not a bottle one finds anymore and I wish I had a case of it. Decanted for 45 minutes, when pouring into the decanter I was ASTOUNDED by the nearly purplish tinge to this juice. Ink well and baby VP color fully opaque. WHAT? Yes, I could barely believe my eyes. Once back in bottle, I kept it chilled until I left my house an hour later. I got to my friends' home and they were excited to see what I brought. They like Port and were happy later on to have a 1985 Vista Alegre Colheita. But with an amazing beef stew, Porto-style we slowly sipped this gem. I just posted on a 2004 Q. de la Rosa Reserva. This had an additional decade of bottle age and somehow it was much darker, and even a bit younger on the palate, yet still full-on secondary characteristics. But even after removing copious quantities of sediment, the fill level was still bottom neck. It must have been impeccably stored. I purchased it last winter from one of my top bottle shops in the southern half of the country. A small family owned operation. Anyway, it showed gorgeous fruit and all 3 of us were taking our time sipping this, realizing we had a true unicorn in our glass and none of us would ever see another bottle of this great juice. Life is good. Finding the occasional great old bottle happens to me far more in PT than when I lived in the USA. I still own some late 1990's Douro wines, but few and far between.