Wine and Emotions

For me it was the mom and pop grocer in Madrid with a shelf near the vaulted ceiling so far from reach of the feather duster that the export banned Jerez dry sherry was nearly invisible in the poorly lighted north facing groundfloor room, and for only a few US dollars that would make a nice Thanksgiving gift for my landlady in my student years. Immediately upon arrival at her family feast I presented the modest gift, but learned quickly she did not drink, and certainly would decline to accept a potluck sort of gift that cost many times my monthly rents to her. At repast's end, she sent me home with my gift returned to me, for my enjoyment.

Later I was to learn the traditional aging practices for the best sherries in the nearby Guadalquivir district typically involved fractional blending of five vintages of fruit with a quality somewhat like the lyric wispiness of chenin's understated boquet. Historians indicate now that the private reserve often contains a smidgeon of fractions as old as 100 years. It used to be the government prohibited export of the best solera sherries. I have heard parallel lore about madeiras, and, it seems the islands have an attractive anchorage for ocean travelers, maybe an interesting shore call on one of your next adventures.
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Nondescript history of the Domecq which is several centuries old: http://www.elcorteingles.es/vinos/bodega/bodega.asp?codigo=175 in Spanish.

The mathematics and vagaries of how century past harvest product ends up in an undated sherry private reserve bottled this year: http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spanish-wine-regions/sherry.html in English.

Isn't it funny how everyone in the wine biz is always trying to take the "mystique" out of wine, and yet every single person I know who catches the wine "bug" has had some sort of transcendantly romantic wine experience?

I was about to post that my most memorable sip of wine was Screaming Eagle (1993), because its texture was positively like vichyssoise soup! But then, reading the first post, I suddenly remembered the very rare old Osborne solera PX I had in Spain. Caramel, nuts an complexity beyond belief, and a finish that lasted almost overnight.