1988 vintage. Medium walnut hue. Old oak chips, walnut, raisin and toffee notes. On the palate, medium body, searing huge acidity, medium alcohol - warming. Long lingering finish. Went extremely well with toffee sauce brownie. Excellent. — 10 years ago
Dried fruits everywhere. Figs, raisins, caramel, toffee, honey, tobacco. Full bodied, medium acid. Delicious!! So sweet. — 10 years ago
Nona had this 11 years ago
How do you define a wine such as this? The descriptors could go on for a page, but what I believe truly defines the Occhio di Pernice is its contrasts of sweet versus savory, heavy versus weightless and it’s unbelievably long finish. The color is a dark amber, more like a long aged Balsamico, than Vin Santo. Twirl the glass and watch as this elixir slowly melts away from the edges. You can’t call these legs—as the wine coats the glass in a layer of dark maple that never truly goes away. I put my nose to the glass and find long-aged cherry Balsamico, raw honey, espresso, fig paste, brown sugar, caramel—I could keep going. On the palate, it has the weight of syrup, yet seems to become weightless as this coats the senses and saturates them with notes of toffee, fig, raisin and maple. Yet there’s a savory note here, like smoked meat with an intense minerality and hints of tannin. As for the finish, I was moved to blurt out the word “WOW”, as notes of coffee, dark chocolate, spice and dried cherry seemed to linger for well over a minute. — 10 years ago
Very focused. Lemon peel, sweaty citrus, and violet on the nose followed up by tangerine, toffee, and sea salt. Very long and incredibly well made. — 10 years ago
Amber in color, notes of walnut, vanilla, caramel, pine nuts, medium body with taste of English toffee, brown sugar, aged balsamic vinegar, smooth and with a long finish, satisfying, time to lit a cigar. — 11 years ago
Clean, crisp, with honey, toffee, and a strong dose of California — 11 years ago
Toffee, roasted hazelnuts, salty and so delicious — 11 years ago
Very nice! Toast & toffee with layers of white fruits - still years ahead of it. — 10 years ago
Intense maple sugars lead to burnt toffee/caramel. Dry, and surprisingly bright. Not a heavy mouthfeel for an olorosso, despite how much depth of flavour is present. — 10 years ago
2003 vintage. toffee and candied fruits. Depth of concentration. Remarkably fresh for an '03. Tremendous effort for such a difficult vintage. bravo Richard. — 11 years ago
Fruit then lots of caramel and toffee — 11 years ago
Sweet. Toffee. Caramel. Yum. — 12 years ago
Martin Redmond
Deep amber color with beguiling and complex aromas of roasted walnuts, toffee, molasses, coffee flavors with hints of of orange zest and baking spice aromas. On the palate it's medium-bodied with very good acidity, and an appealing oily mouth feel with dried dates, raspberry juice, sweet coffee, seawater, lemon zest, and iodine flavors with a long finish. — 9 years ago