Symington Family Estates is releasing a £4,510 ($7,680) bottle of tawny port wine, according to The Telegraph. Although the bottle comes in a beautiful leather box and a decanter with Scottish silver, what steals the show is the wine itself, which was barreled in 1882. (Queen Victoria was on the throne when those grapes were picked, to give you an idea.) Taylor’s, Symington Family Estates’ rival port company, is about to release a £3,000 ($5,108) bottle, that dates back to 1863.
The Telegraph’s Victoria Moore tastes both wines, and has mixed reactions. Because they’ve spent such a long time in barrel, they have lost most of their volume to evaporation. According to Adrian Bridge of Taylor’s, a 40-year port is “reduced to just 25 per cent of its original volume.” So, you can imagine how concentrated a 150-year-old bottle would be.
Moore finds Taylor’s 1863 vintage disappointing, relating the nose to a “puddle of old water in a cellar,” and preferred the Symington, of which the house will release a total of three barrels. [The Telegraph] [Photo: Flickr/Charles Hoffman]