1940 Quarles Harris Colheita (bottled 1980s)

[winesecretary]

...well I presume it's a colheita, because it's a single vintage wine with no bottling date but the label looks 1980s.

Not a t-cork like the another ostensibly similar bottle someone made a note on 10 years ago or more but equally definitely not a long cork. Came out more or less whole.

30 minute decant.

A rich reddish - brown, yellow rim. Definitely a barrel-aged wine. Ripe plums and cooked chestnuts on the nose. Hint of the high-class Turkish delight, not heavy on the icing sugar.

In the mouth rather drier at first than the nose would suggest, with quite bracing acidity and a definite wood note- chestnut again? Reminds me a bit of Chiantishire with those big oval chestnut barrels. Chocolate. Medjool dates. Finish persistent. Long-drawn-out Seville orange warmth.

This is really rather good.

[JacobH]

...well I presume it's a colheita, because it's a single vintage wine with no bottling date but the label looks 1980s.

Not a t-cork like the another ostensibly similar bottle someone made a note on 10 years ago or more but equally definitely not a long cork. Came out more or less whole.

I’m glad after 12 years another one of these has turned up and it remains as mysterious as before. I’m really interested into why they made a single 40-year-old colheita in the 1980s. Perhaps it was a 300-anniversay bottling? They currently claim to have been founded in 1680.

[winesecretary]

Further internet researches suggest three different labels exist (and at least two different bottling dates, 1981 and 1989). Mine does not feature the bottling date, which the 1981 bottling seems to. There appear to be extant 1967 and 1969 colheitas with the same style label as the one I have.

[JacobH]

There's also a photo of one bottled in 1990. Looking around it actually looks like they produced a string of these under the name of "personal reserve" or "grand reserve" in the period. I can also see a few photos of a 1945, 1967, 1969 (bottled in 1984), and a 1974. Nothing more recent though.

[winesecretary]

+48 hrs

Darkened a little. Nose more redolent of rich fruits- I was helping my girlfriend make a Christmas cake earlier and the kilo of dried fruit, marinated in a a quarter-pint of each of rum and cointreau, then combined with brown sugar and half a pound of butter and slowly heated, had a similar nose-feel. This may seem over-discursive, but what I'm trying to say is that the nose is really rather complex. In the mouth, the wood from the forty-odd years in barrel hits again, but perhaps there's a more concentrated vinosity than two days ago. Finish medium. Lots of orange marmalade and star anise.

[winesecretary]

+70 hours (I should say: stored in 'fridge in original bottle throughout)

Nose similar; palate more like a sweeter madeira, or even a really serious sweeter sherry, now. This is not negative criticism. It's fascinating to drink. Finish is similar, but longer.

[winesecretary]

+95 hours

Distinctly brown wine now. Nose interestingly maderised, an attractive (no, really) sauerkraut hint. On the palate nuts predominate with some prune and fig later. Finish long, warming, complex and dark.

If more was available at a vaguely sensible price, I'd acquire more. While it's not port as we know it, it's in that interesting crossover space between port and my beloved madeira.