Vin de Constance. Leitz Summitar 50mm

I bought this rather fascinating bottle of wine back in 1990.  It is a recreation of a dessert wine famous in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and reportedly a favorite of both Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Napoleon.  Wiki gives a nice synopsis here.
A dear old buddy was visiting from South Africa last weekend and after a dinner of lamb kofte grilled on the fire, I decided that we should see if the Vin de Constance was still with us.   Regrettably, it was, as our Australian cousins like to say, "gone in the gums"...  The color had darkened quite considerably - which we could live with - but it had acquired a bitter aftertaste.  Napoleon would have curled his lip and reached for his spittoon...  Not wanting to just toss the remains, Constance went into a tomato sauce where she found a good home.  A few herbs and spices took care of the bitterness and the wine lived on as a delicate perfume to the sauce.  All was not lost.  And we still have the lovely hand blown bottle with the remains of the wax which sealed the cork.  Vin de Constance is more easily available now than it was back in 1990, that is until the South African wine farms are nationalized. I see a replacement in our near future.