Critic: Robert Parker

Tasted: 30-OCT-98

Drinking Dates: 1998-2028

Score: 96

The first two words in my tasting notes on this wine were "great stuff!" This explosive amber-colored dessert wine boasts remarkable freshness and elegance for its size, richness, and power. Although sweet, it does not come across as cloying or heavy given its tangy level of acidity, which insures its freshness and strikingly beautiful aromatics. The wine is dense, full-bodied, spectacularly perfumed, and totally harmonious. The alcohol must be 15%-18%, but it is impeccably well-balanced. This remarkable, youthful (and I mean that in a positive sense) 1948 Tokay has another 2-3 decades of life ahead of it. There was considerable sediment. Quite special! Less than 100 bottles of this wine are available.This wine is part of the Massandra collection. Founded by Tsar Nicholas II in 1894, the Massandra Winery, on the outskirts of Yalta, on the Crimean Peninsula, supplied the royal family with fine wines while they were vacationing at their summer palace at Livadia.