Old gift

In January 2004, 18 years ago now, my friend David gave me a bottle of his homemade red wine.

He said at the time it wasn't very good: cook with it or put it away. I put it away. And I forgot about it. Yesterday, looking for something else in the basement, I noticed a drop of wine on the floor by three or four old bottles and discovered it had leaked from the now-deteriorating cork on his bottle.

So I brought it up and re-bottled it with a clean bottle and newish cork. I was going to put it downstairs again but I tasted it first.

Delicious! Dark like you'd expect being that old, and with a kind of sherry or port flavour. Full body, no astringency (that is, how I like red wine) and a sweetness that isn't really sweet at all. An excellent wine that I'll finish off in a day or two.

Nice Christmas present.