Editor’s Note: It is rare that I have a guest post on this site (I think there has only been one other). Ya’acov Oryah needs no introduction from me. He is a well known and highly respoected winemaker. I have written a number of detailed posts about his wines over the years. He is also a close friend. I was honored and excited when he asked to post about arguably his most famous creation. It is a wine that I have been enjoying for a number of years whose history has always intrigued me and whose continued development i look forward to. So, without further ado, here is the story from the man who wrote it. -AD

Some time ago, back in 2010, a bunch of winemakers from Israel traveled to Portugal, guest of Amorim, the cork producer. Winemakers worldwide were slowly abandoning natural corks due to TCA contamination. This was effecting Amorim of course, but also the economy of Portugal. So, after much research and heavy investments (with aid from the Portuguese government), Amorim started inviting wine makers from around the world to showcase their research, progress and solutions to avoid TCA.

In our tour, we also visited some Port producers. In one of them, at Graham’s , my dear friend Sam Soroka pulled me aside and suggested (actually insisted) that I order and taste Tawny Ports, which were not on the group’s tasting program. I listened to my seasoned friend, tasted 20yr, 30yr and 40yr Tawny Ports, and a new world of wine revealed itself to me. Fascinating, almost incomprehensible complexity of different nuts, saps, dries fruits and divine nectars, all intermixed, layer upon layer. A wine that I would love to try and make, but it seemed I should have thought of that some 30-40 years earlier. It seemed that making such a wine could exists only in dreams.

Surprisingly, at one of the wineries I worked with, I found a few barrels of a sweet wine sitting there, neglected and ignored for many years. The wine was of questionable quality, to the point where that the winery thought it inappropriate to bottle. But back in my Negociant days (2006) I learned that a good wine you cannot buy (the winery will not sell), a bad wine you do not want to buy (though the winery would be glad to sell), and mediocre wines – the winery could be willing to sell (it is good for cash-flow), and if you have a vision what can be done with such a wine, how to blend and make a new creation, you will be willing to buy it. On the spectrum, this wine that I found was closer to the category of wines that nobody wants to buy (and yes, sales of bulk wines between wineries are made occasionally). But I had a vision for it, inspired by my Tawny Port dreams.

The wine was far being able to stand on its own merits. It needed much refining and balancing, yet it was good enough as something to work with. So I bought the wine. I added some early harvest Chardonnay, with crisp acidity and low alcohol, to balance out the too sweet cloying character and lower the too high alcohol. I also added three miniscule components of skin macerated whites, too small to add on the label but just the right amount needed to add the lacking spice and complexity. And now the new blend was a wine that stood where I thought it should be – something properly suited to launch it onto my dreamed-of Tawny Port journey. I returned the blend to the barrels for another year for needed integration, and then in my opinion it was ready to be introduced to the world.

In fact, the whole project was a study in development of Tawny Port, a study of long term Micro-Oxidization to a wine that is stable and immune to bacteria. And as a study, the purpose was to see how time carried the wine. I thought it therefore would be interesting to bottle in portions, every time a part of the wine, leaving the rest to continue to oxidize. And so, the 8yr Old Musketeer was born.

At the end, it turned out to be a project that taught me a lot. About responsibility, patience, and doing your best with the cards you are given in life. Bad cards should not lead to giving up. I am thankful to G-D that when finding a forgotten wine, somewhat like an abandoned child whose parent deserted them for not shining or being smart enough, I was able to understand its hidden potential, to be a base for something of great beauty. And so, with proper care, nourishment, clothing and education, and a lot a lot of patience, I was able to bring it to blossom. Enabling me to share a fascinating wine process, not available yet in the Kosher wine world.

RSN (Like TN but different – Retrospective Structure Notes):

The portions were issued after 8, 12 and 14 years. At 10 years I bottled a few barrel samples and shared with some friends. Alas, I have no 10ys issue in my cellar. But recently I was a guest of the London RCC hosted by Hanna and Richard Davidoff, who kindly was willing to sacrifice his 10yr issue for the noble cause of a vertical tasting. I brought also a current barrel sample of 16yr, and we had a tasting of 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 years of barrel aging. A first for me. I have never tasted them all in one sequence. My expectations we to see (taste) shifts on structure, intensity, and balance. Since in the Matrix of component relationships, the water continues to evaporate and micro oxygen continues, and so the component relationship and equilibrium is constantly on the move. And to see (taste) that, is actually the reason why I dreamed of such a journey.

If I were to describe the structural changed from issue to issue, I would compare it to a staircase. As it seems that the wine is on a gradual move of adding strength, then staying at that plateau for a while and rebalancing.

• 8yr – elegant, almost gentle, and balanced.
• 10yr – a leap in sweetness and intensity, yet less refined..
• 12yr – the characteristic of 10yr, now with refinement and complexity..
• 14yr – again a leap in intensity. Not so much a sweetness leap, but the spices and oxidative noes are intensified, and the overall expression is a bit rough on the edges.
• 16yr Barrel Sample – a similar pattern to the movement of 12yr, who took to the 10yr and refined it. Here too, the characteristics of the 14yr are there, now with more refinement and balance.

Epilog:

1. I will have to decide how long this study will continue. The more frequent I bottle the faster the project will be over.

2. At PINTO winery I started a sweet Muscat project. It is made annually. I am still considering whether to release each vintage separately, and if so, at what age, or alternatively to make a Solera, with the combined qualities of new on old.