Terrantez Medium Dry Frasqueira (bottled 2013, 25yo) 1988

The rare Terrantez variety can be bottled as medium dry or medium sweet. This medium dry version is a remarkably complex, fascinating wine. Bitter medicinal herb aromatics with bracken, spiced wood, salted caramels, faded jar preserves, old straw and a touch of the maritime. The palate is sweet at first, with inseparable elements suggesting honey, brick, earth and wood. There's an incredibly layered juicy acidity, which carries sweetness along in the form of the memory of the skins of fruit that has given it up as a preserve. Gloriously gathered in the mouth, it is very complex yet deft, dancey, effortlessly balanced to off-dry.