There were two wines that showed above the others in this tasting. The nose of the 1932 Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial didn't stop changing over the good course of four hours that the tasting lasted. Initially it had a different vegetal twist with hints of artichokes and asparagus that I've found in many vintages of old whites from López de Heredia, and with time it moved towards the more common aromas found in other vintages. We have to realize this was produced in a very different world, where there was no rush, no calculations of return on investment and stuff like that. Under those circumstances, the wine was not released until after 1961, and while the winery has no records of the production process or bottling time, later vintages were still kept in oak for 20 years before they were bottled, so you have to suspect it was that or even more in this case. If the nose is superb, the palate is cosmic: it has a combination of depth and complexity that is hard to achieve. The very subtle evolution mixes the caramel aromas with hints of tea, chamomile and even aromatic herbs, balsamic and nutty. I could keep writing different descriptors for hours, which shows the huge complexity. Unfortunately, this is one of those "once in a lifetime" wines; I had never seen a bottle before this and I very much doubt I'll see another one again. But it was very nice while it lasted. The bottle I tasted had been recorked by the winery in 1987. This is fully mature now, but who knows how much longer it can last...
The remaining drops from the bottle were analyzed and revealed a wine that was 12.34% alcohol with a very low pH of 2.93, with 6.90 grams of tartaric acidity, 0.9 grams of volatile acidity and 95 milligrams of sulfur.
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