TN: 1955 Chateau Nenin - Pomerol

TN: 1955 Chateau Nenin - Pomerol

I fancied a modestly mature Bordeaux red with dinner, so I chose this bottle. Brown glass, fill level just below the neck. This is a negociant bottling by Jean Rivière. Stood up for 24 hours, the cork came out in a number of pieces but there was no leakage over the years. Interestingly, the cork had 1957 stamped on it! A rich plum red which is darker than expected, with a hint of terracotta at the rim. The nose shows its age, with nuances of dry cooked meats, oak barrel and a tiny hint of eucalyptus. The velvet mouthfeel is sweet and then savoury. Rounded waves of mature dried fruit casually roll around my tastebuds. This wine is fully mature and, for my tastes, drinking well.

great notes Nicos.
Sounds like it was a 57 with a 55 label slapped on. Doesn’t matter much at this age.

The old Nenins up to about 1970 are really good wines. Not sure what happened afterwards, but the 1982 is pretty nasty.

That seems really dark for such an old wine, even if a big vintage.

The only 55 Pomerol I’ve had was the Haut Maillet, which was pretty exhausted a year or two ago.

Thank you for your comments!

I’ve had several '03’s that I found to be quite good

Not had the 2003 yet, but I notice that I have a 1978 that I guess is ready to drink.

Great notes, Nicos. Perhaps it’s practice but I notice you’re very good at removing old corks without the tell tale signs of using a Durand / Ah So. How do you remove these old corks? Just curious.

Ha! After reading the note I was all prepared to respond that Golodetz is always saying how good older Nenin are and here you are.

Speaking of older Nenin, ever have the '67? I picked one up cheap since it’s a birth year wine. Hopefully, they picked before the rain.

Hi Lawrence and thank you. I use a Durand carefully, no special tricks.

We did a mini vertical of Nenin recently, but not the 1967. I have had some very good Pomerols from '67, so you could be onto something good. The 1966 was just about intact, the 1970 had years in front of it.

By the late 90’s I think there was some changes in how they made it.

We had the 98 maybe a year ago – it was more refined than the chunkier earlier 90’s efforts.

Still, the new style isn’t in a fruit forward fashion, which seemed more apparent when compared to a Barde Haute from the same era.

Nice note as always, but - also as usual - terrible photo of the wine in glass.

Murky and looking as dead as dead can be, these saving bulbs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) you have in your kitchen simply distorts the true colours grossly

Please try next time to photograph under incandescent lightbulbs, halogen or simply in daylight, and you’d be able to convince us that there’s no doubt that your bottle was still palatable.

Please give us a true-to-life impression of your many surviving elderly bottles

I have energy saving LED spotlights in my kitchen (about two years old), not compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Indeed it does seem dark (I’ve also had a '66 which was a fair bit lighter in colour). In fact if it wasn’t for the two Eglise Clinets I had next to each other in December ('53 and '55) I would have thought there was something fishy going on here (particularly with the '57 cork). However, the Eglise Clinets were still ink black and kicking (far deeper than this) so this doesn’t look like too much of a reach. Still odd shout the '57 cork thought - any more thoughts on this?

There seems to be no great monetary advantage to faking the wine. True 1955 is a better year than 1957, but it’s a negotiant bottling of a relatively minor Bordeaux. Also at the time, Pomerol was just beginning to be exported to the UK, before that it was mostly going to Belgium, and for relatively little money.

Pomerols were pretty unknown, especially a minor chateau such as Nenin. Also, why would you telegraph the discrepancy with later cork, when it would have been just as easy to put in a fake 1955?

Obviously it might have been a later fake, but again, all the above arguments apply. I am puzzled.

Just a thought but as the cork has the name of the négociant rather than the chateau it might simply be that the year is when it was bottled. Perhaps they had a number of different Pomerols on their books (even from different vintages) and simply ordered the cork to be stamped with the year they were in at the time?

I thought of that, but I would hope any negotiant worth his salt would know that the only vintage you would use would be the harvest one. Never seen anything else used in Bordeaux.

Indeed. The cork looks like it’s been in there a while though, and this, plus the other elements in the equation, make me thinks this is the genuine article, despite the vintage discrepancy.

Out of interest, is there any chance OP could let us know what the top word on the cork reads? Perhaps this could help shed some light on the matter?

“Modestly mature”? Modestly stated!