Friend of mine found a bottle of wine (Torres Gran Reserva, 1959) that’s almost forty-five years old. Needs to know if it’s still drinkable, or if it has morphed into some vile vinegar-like substance.
Google wasn’t helpful, so on the friend’s behalf I throw this question to the Teeming Millions. Any wine aficiandos out there know much about this label, and if it is still drinkable after all this time?
Label information provided below for reference.
Front label
Gran Reserva
1959
Torres
Estate Bottled At the vineyards
Estable 1870
Gran Coronas
Produced and bottled by Miguel Torres * Villafranca del Panadés * Product of Spain
No. 796
Reserva 1959 Back label
Gran Coronas (red dry)
This charming wine you are about to enjoy was born on the sunny vine-clad slopes of the fertile rolling hills west of Barcelona, where grapes have flourished since they were introduced by the Romans, 20 centuries ago. Every bottle of this wine has been produced and bottled in the TORRES cellars.
[More rah rah stuff]
Very faint on the bottom:
Transported by Consolidated Distilled Product(s)
Chicago, Illinois
Being of pretty much that vintage myself, I’d appreciate you’re being a bit more accurate. 43 years old.
Condition of the wine depends a lot on how it was stored. Was it kept cool or did the temperature vary a lot? What shape is the cork in? If it’s a red with a lot of tannin, it may still be drinkable.
DDG, I don’t think the question is ambiguous. The question is, “Is the wine drinkable”, not “Is it valuable?”.
If A) Wine - consume
If B) Vinegar - cook something or discard.
Sounds like the bottle is already bought, so the only way to find out for sure is to give it a go, IMHO. If you want, you can mail it to me, and I’ll test it for you
Alternatively, ask the at the Vintage section of your local liquor store for information about the wine (assuming you have something equivalent to Ontario’s LCBO or Quebec’s SAQ).
Following Finangle’s points, there’s also the question (as I understand it from my wine-making relatives) about when the bottle was intended to be drunk. Nowadays, at least, bottles are “tuned” to be opened in a specific time, usually ASAP. If your bottle was meant to be drunk within 10 years, which would be the case if it wasn’t a great vintage, I’m guessing. it’s vinegar. And probably not very good vinegar.
[mnemosyne] If a wine turns out vinegar, the appropriate cooking use is: flavored vinegar. The ace SDMB cooks would probably agree, sinking a cup of $10 a bottle wine into a chicken dish would make for some fantastic chicken. Putting wine vinegar on chicken would have the obvious result.
Torres Gran Reserva is a fine bottle if from the late 80s and on but a 59 vintage… hmmm. In any case they usually do not hold beyond the 10 year limit even when the newer better kind. They peak at about six to eight, four years is perfectly drinkable. I used to have a few 94s that I took much pleasure in at six.
I digress, back to your problem.
Spanish wines from those days weren’t of top quality. I wouldn’t drink it.
It might however have some very slight collectible value (not much, but something) to someone who is into Spanish wines.
The house Torres is the biggest wine producer in Spain. They have transcended from bulk wine making pre WWII to finer wines (although they still have several labels and vineyards that turn out table wines) and Miguel Torres the current President (since 1962) is pretty much held to be the grand old man of Spanish wines. He was instrumental in the effort to housebreak Spanish wines and helped create the DO classification which one thanks him for.
As a result the bottle could as I said have some marginal value. I have no idea what it would go for though since I don’t buy that much Spanish myself (my focus is very Tuscany and Burgundy). As some kind of reference I can tell you that a Gran Reserva Torres from 94 fetches somewhere between $80 and $100. I would be much surprised if the bot you have there would reach that price level, but you never know, it’s a quaint little thing.
As to if it is vinegar or not, that depends on the cork quality and if air has seeped in or not. If it isn’t vinegar it is most assuredly ‘fragmented’. This will lead to that when you pour it, it will ‘disintegrate’ into alcoholic water, and a powderish residue, which sinks to the bottom of the glass and leaves you to drink a mildly unpleasant pinkish liquid. As I said earlier, I wouldn’t do it.
Actually the friend is a “she”. Both the friend and the bottle of wine thousands of miles away from me.
And the friend first posed the question, I imagine, in order to avoid a very unpleasant taste sensation.
Personally, I have no stake in the matter. As for the friend, I’ll leave it up to her to decide whether or not she wants to pursue investigation of the possible value of the wine.