I am fortunate to have some wonderful old friends who have spent decades assembling enviable wine collections, and whose generosity seems to know no bounds. I spent Friday evening in the garden of one of these dear friends and he decided that we should open another bottle, after having nearly finished one at lunch earlier! I gratefully agreed to find and decant.

The cork was in marvellous shape, fully saturated but easily came out intact using a Laguiole corkscrew – my better sense said use the Ah-So, but we actually couldn’t find it…decanted and served almost immediately

I had a taste of the first bottle which had been decanted several hours before, then went on to this second bottle and have condensed the note as one tasting note. The bottles were very consistent in overall impression, with the second bottle retaining more of the fruit characteristics.

Colour

Medium garnet, lighter than I expected. Definitely showing its age.

Nose

In one word – fascinating.

Slight ferrous oxide/rusted tin gives way to fresh tobacco, wet earth, a bit of cedar, fresh red currants, ripe plums and then a little bit of tomato. Certainly showing mostly tertiary characteristics (age), and no hint of the warmth of this vintage in terms of baked or dried fruits.

Taste

Tannins are so ripe and soft, fully embedded in the wine, yet there remained a little sparkle, flecks of tannins around the gums, to remind you that this wine still has some of its original teeth left.

Acidity level was beautifully high, providing a good tension to the wine.

Fruit more prominent in the mouth than on the nose, concentrated red plums, blackcurrant, black currant leaf, tobacco and then a savoury almost meaty finish. The concentration of this wine is very high, even though it has lost some of its sweetness over the decade, it leaves a blast shadow of its former concentrated glorious self.

The balance between the tannin, acidity and fruit was near perfect given its advanced age.

The finish was immense, lasting a full 2 minutes, leaving a lingering sensation of this beautifully aged graceful princess still clinging to its former beauty.

Overall, a blessed experience, thank you again to my dear friend!