1955 Wynns Michael, 64 Wynns, 76 Grange etc
Brief impressions are all that I can muster I am afraid. Still feeling a little ‘worn out’.
Dom Ruinart BdB NV: Sour with what seems like a fairly high dosage.
1996 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill: Superb wine. All subtlety and finish. A companion to the superb ’96 Comte. I had a glass sitting there for about 2 hours and when I tasted it, there was a remarkably complex flavour of hay, mazipan, lemon rind and rose petal. So elegant too.
1988 Taittinger Comtes Blanc de Blanc: Beginning to show some development but classically Comtes de Champagne. Excellent balance and length. Loved it.
1989 Trimbach Frederic Emile Vendage Tardive: Very pure, beautiful balance of acid and sugar. On foie gras, this was perfect. I’m glad we had them together. Help up all night and had a piercing youthful streak that was so delicious.
1955 Wynns Michael Shiraz: Well, this was the whole reason for the night. Mark made a profoundly generous offer a few weeks ago to open this legendary wine for a few of us, as we’d never had it.
The bottle was mid to high shoulder. The cork came out in just about one piece, after some securing with a second screw. A quick decant and it was served. At first, the nose was one dimension. The palate, however, had that pure, juicy cherry (?) flavour of fine old Australian wine. A core of sweetness. It gives these wines a vitality you rarely see elsewhere I think.
With air, the nose came together and gained complexity. Old, well cared for leather shoes. Sweet oak. Tobacco. Dried oregano and cloves. In the mouth, the texture of the wine was beautiful, subtle and profound in its own way. Surprisingly, there was some refreshing acidity to the palate which made you want to sip more and more — which I did! Mark was smart enough to hold on to his glass for three and half hours and it continued to collect itself over that time. Perhaps we should have opened the bottle earlier in the day. Live and learn.
This wine is 52 years old. History in a bottle. Mark, an immensely generous act. I’m happy to have shared it with you.
1964 Wynns Claret: Originally brought as a back up. It was decided we should open it due to the high rate of evaporation of the other wines. This wine had a streak of V.A. I found hard to ignore on the nose but the palate! It was like vinous BBQ sauce! It also had a surprisingly large amount of tannin for a wine of its age. Doing very well. Impressive, for what it is.
1982 Leoville Las Cases: I probably should have opened this much earlier but the moment got the better of me. After about three hours, classic St. Julien graphite and black berry fruits. Strangely, this bottle was a little vegetal, unlike a previous bottle I’ve had. The palate has a great feel to it and the wine is very long in finishing. A classic, but not looking its best on the night.
1976 Penfolds Grange: Another very good Grange. The nose was simply explosive. I’m beginning to see more how one could compare Grange to a first growth. Lots of very fine tannin on the palate, very powdery and pleasurable. Heaps of complexity. Immensely drinkable. I liked the inky brooding quality of Danny’s ’82 last week more but could see the attraction to this book. Great stuff.
1970 Graham’s Vintage Port: A huge alcoholic lift. A beautiful color, like 10 year old Beaune. If you could look past the alcohol, the aromas on this wine were primary: juicy cherries and cranberries, fennel. With time, it took on coffee and leather notes. Excellent palate. A great wine that would have been better at a slightly lower temperature.
1998 Zind Humbrecht SGN: Extremely botrytised with the typical Zind oxidative handling. This wine was a light amber/copper. Deliciously rich nose of burning marmalade, cloves, five spice, caramelised pine apple. The palate was like vinous golden syrup, but maintained its balance. It may have suffered on the night after so much rich food but it was a great SGN.
(gee, lucky I was only brief!)
