1970 Gonzalez Byass

[uncle tom]

I first sampled this wine in September 2006, and was pleasantly surprised.

A year+ on and time for another bottle. Decanted 2 hours ago.

The wine has already performed it's little party trick - on first decanting it is very light and pale - a pale cerise colour in the decanter - then after a couple of hours in decanter it is suddenly much much darker - weird!

The taste has also played games - my recollection was caramel as the key signature of the wine, but this was not at all in evidence at first sip.

After decanting, I wandered down to the pub for a jar or three, and on wandering back wondered if I'd got the signature muddled with Butler Nephew or Kopke perhaps..?

Now a glass of the darkened juice is giving me caramel loud and clear - all very strange...!

Anyway, this is already very approachable, and very good, with little initial fire remaining - a wine to look out for and nab on the auction circuit - if you can find it!

Tom

[uncle tom]

A couple of days on and this wine just pleases!

Think of a good mature Taylor, add a note of caramel and raise the sweetness level a tad - and you get the picture.

To score:

For immediate gratification this is upper quartile comfortably - although some might find it a little over-sweet. An easy 8.

Where's it going? It's fully mature, and firmly on a plateau - it might be a tad over the hill in a decade, but I'm thinking that it's high sugar level is going to pickle it for eternity.

Score 8-8

Tom