1908 Unknown (Bottled by Page and Sandeman)

[Alex Bridgeman]

A bottle from the old London wine merchants, Page & Sandeman. No label, only the stamp on the seal to indicate the vintage and bottler. This was opened as it had started to leak and was ullaged down to low shoulder. Sadly, the cork was unbranded so unless some kind soul has access to the records of Page & Sandeman, the identity of the wine will remain unknown forever.

A deep orange in colour, 30% opaque. Full on the nose, but with the remains of bottle stink making the wine smell like over-ripe or rotting oranges; not attractive. Very sweet impact on the palate; thick, full bodied and a big wine with plenty of layers of flavour. Lots of burnt orange and burnt caramel; some slight rubberiness from the bottle stink but also slightly bitter. A lot of heat on swallowing, but this is followed by a very, very long finish of mouthfilling proportions that has an amazing amount of aromatic dryness to it. Almost like biting into cedar wood. 89/100. Drunk after 4 hours decanting on 28 October 2010.

[Alex Bridgeman]

A day later, this is even better. All the bottle stink has blown off, the rubberiness has gone and all I am left with is a thick, rich, powerful, orange-dominated port that has enormous length. This is bloomin' good stuff! 92/100.

[DRT]

A sample very kindly sent to me by AHB:

The nose is initially very sweet but a little swirl reveals the stinky stuff AHB refers to in his note. No more swirlling! The texture is very thick and syrupy. At first quite sweet but then lots of bitter orange in the mid palate. Very smooth to swallow, a bit like a slightly thinned cough syrup, coating everything as it goes down. The finish is fantastic and goes on forever. My cheeks are watering a full 3 minutes after swallowing my first mouthful.

Wonderful stuff.

A big thanks to AHB for his generosity.