I chose this bottle as a quiet introduction to my Friday evening and it certainly did not exceed my expectations. I opened and poured half a glass, allowing the rest of the bottle to breathe for an hour before I revisited it. A garnet red was positive sign towards its good past storage and handling. The nose was soft and gives me delicate dried flowers with more than a hint of pencil box aromas and green pepper. The savoury mouthfeel is lean and devoid of any fruit, with an austere seam of green vegetable peaking through. If I was serving this to a ‘non-wine geeky’ friend, they would probably ask “Where is the wine?” A valid question which I asked myself during the middle of the first glass. I do like ‘old school’ claret but this wine at this age is not to my liking.
Abandoning the weedy claret, I switched to a generous dram of a single cask Ledaig whisky, bottled at cask strength. The brutal peaty coastal aromas and full throttle palate soon had my taste buds singing…
'75 was the first Bordeaux vintage I collected in volume (20 bottles was volume at that time) 6 first growths, a case of Gruaud Larose and 2 Conseillantes. One of the two Latours was excellent and all the others morphed directly from Tannic beasts to fruitless old age
Oh my – don’t write off 1975 bordeaux just yet. The wines that have held fruit through the long long tannic cruise that was the vintage are just terrific now. Top Right Bank wines might be best, but sound bottles of Left Bank wines like Pichon Lalande and Beychevelle are really good right now, and La Mission is great.
The two that I have popped in the last few years have been quite good. This is a leaner, more austere, tannic vintage, but Mouton’s ripeness of fruit did well here.
i’m a '75 so this is relevant to my interests. recently had a splendid Lynch Bages - fully resolved but still had some good tannins and sufficient acidity. I don’t drink bordeaux that often anymore and I really prefer them with a lot of age, but man the nose on that was ethereal. alone worth the mild price of entry. i’ve had good luck with LLC, HB, LMHB, Tratonoy and several others.
Germans and Cal Cabs also off the charts…good year!
'75 was best in Saint Julien, where most of the top properties produced superb wines. Leoville Barton is still going strong, as are Leoville Las Cases and Langoa Barton (I’ve had about a million half bottles of '75 Langoa Barton - I swear they produced 50,000 cases of half bottles - I still run into it now and then).
Lafite had the potential, but not sure it’s going anywhere today.
AND Nicos - Brane Cantenac was on it’s worst downside back in the 70s, producing absolutely horrible wines. I remember this '75 drying out in the early 80s.
And 1970 and '75 were the first vintages that I started cellaring Petite Chateaux, and there were a number of really nice bottlings from '75 - especially from the Northern Medoc -
26.08.2009 -
Opened about 5 hours in advance, took a sniff, had a sip, and put a cork back in. Some lovely aromas, but seemed fragile. Later, in the glass, the color was clear, the nose was really enticing, and the impression on the palate grew and grew. The nose was very sexy, with a delectable mix of tobacco, old leather, and a hint of vague “Christmas spice blend” in the background. In the mouth it was full and refreshing, with good acid and stiil with fruit, but not the longest ever. Tannins still very present, but in no way agressive. It kept getting better, and was in good shape by the time we finished it over the course of about 1 1/2 hrs.
I do not think it is valuable to judge about a vintage after tasting a Brane-Cantenac, a Chateau producing mediocre wines up until 1982 … the 1983 being the first really excellent effort (in the 60ies, 70ies - nothing older tasted). I´ve tasted the 1975 only twice, last time a good 12+ years ago, but that was very disapointing, so I didn´t care afterwards anymore.
But there are many outstanding wines in 1975, many of them really opening up during the last years … I will not reveal my favorites (looking for them myself to re-purchase ), but some have already been mentioned above …).
But it´s true that there are also many wines drying out - or still worse having been only hard and fruitless since (I suppose) release.
Everything that’s been noted about red Bordeaux from 1975 has mirrored my experience as well, especially the weakness of the Brane Cantenac.
However, 1975 is a fabulous vintage for the sweet white Bordeaux from Sauternes. I’ve had a number of them over the past several years and they’re all in great shape. My latest has been some half bottles of La Tour Blanche, which I acquired from an old French restaurant in the area when they liquidated their cellar upon closing up shop. The bottles had been bought on release by the restaurant and perfectly kept. These half bottles are still showing fabulously. Here’s my first note from 2011, but the later bottles have been consistent to this.
1975 Château La Tour Blanche Sauternes- France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes (5/28/2011)
Drunk from a .375ml bottle. The color is medium gold, or slightly darker, but not as dark as I would have expected with 36 years of age. The cork on this bottle was up a little, but fill was at base neck. The cork had a fabulous carmalized sugar nose. The wine itself had a slightly alcoholic nose that masked the apricots that were definitely there. This was popped and poured, otherwise the alcohol would have blown off. Really nice flavors of apricot, peach and honey, with a great backbone of acidity. Years (decades?) of life left. Would have rated 92 without the alcohol on the nose. Paired great with the bananas foster I had with it. (90 pts.)
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