Making a trip to visit the family for lunch on my birthday last weekend loaded up with cleanskins and a bottle of Bullers Tawny Port I stumbled across something that had been awakened from my youthful memory. In the pantry stuck behind the sherry and spumante my father had uncarefully cellared a bottle of 750ml All Saints 1977 God Medal Tokay which I remembered seeing approximately twenty years ago when he lived in Swan Hill. The label was immediately recognisable and I carefully lifted it away from the cheap guzzling plonk and pondered, could this still be drinkable after moving house six times and 450km and spared no comforts. Twenty years ago I was happy to raid his cheap reds and blackbery nip but tokay didn't interest me one bit, how the wheel had turned.
I will make some enquiries with the winery to validate this but the label reads:...This premium fortified is the first release of Tokay from All Saints Vineyard. If that is true then somewhere along the way their winemaking focus has shifted and I must have the first release of what Ric (TORB) considers to be the ultimate fortified wine, liquid gold. This makes it even more interesting for me as I visited All Saints about 8 weeks ago on Ric's recommendation to try the Tokays and came home with some of the Grand, alas couldn't afford the Musuem at $434 but still came away besotted by the sheer luxury of their fortifieds.
The bottle is in very good condition and I will put a photo on my profile when I can work out how to reduce the size of the file. The cork has a plastic top making it easy to withdraw, it is soft and supple with dark brown tinges spotted around it, no signs of mould or leakage. The top of the bottle emits deep dark molasses, caramel and magnficent rich christmas pudding aromas. It is poured with no fanfare into a glass, a rich golden brown, another whiff, powerful rich fruit pudding bouquet, extremely syrupy with butterscoth overtones and a freshness like apricot, this is sending me into a spin. A swirl around the glass indicates the alcohol has diminished somewhat over the journey as it does not stick to the side and create the rippled curtain effect like the newer versions. In the mouth it is luscious, rich in flavour and texture but extremely well balanced and smooth, no bite or burning just silky smooth and it stayed in the back of the mouth for a minute after being swallowed. A symphony of flavours abound, toffee, caramel, plum pudding, molasses, butterscotch and apricot. What a birthday surprise.
I don't anything about this but would be happy to receive anyones knowledge or comments.
Colin[/img]
All Saints 1977 Tokay
All Saints 1977 Tokay
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter. Sermons and soda water the day after.
Colin, I jagged a couple of these when a restaurant in brisbane closed its doors some years ago. Sonds like yours were in better condition, the bottles I got were getting tired and stale, and showed alcoholic heat and acid with little fruit remaining. There might have een a good wine there once 
great to hear yours was OK,
Andrew
great to hear yours was OK,
Andrew