I was mortified thinking my streak of recent bad bottles continued. From a super-clean, mature bottle, the cap cut perfectly. As I’m wiping the funk off the top of the cork, the damn thing pushed in. Not a subtle depression, but a whole-scale move, dropping into the bottle. I’m certain it’s dead.
What pours out is gorgeously aromatic.
Actually, the scent was like walking through an old Cuban cigar factory, with sweaty workers diligently plying their trade, wrapping their matured Maduro leaves into a lovely figurado, then gently placing them into cedar boxes. Now mind you, I’m Cuban, but this is all made up, I’ve never walked through a cigar factory. I don’t even know if they call them factories - certainly there is a more quaint term. But this is pretty much how I envision it, and intake this old-school beauty. I swirl the elixir in my bowl, enjoying the wafts emanating from the glass, a range of red to dark and plummy fruits emerge, and autumn forest floor, but the tobacco and pencil shavings predominate. Mid-weight on the palate, tannins have resolved, leaving refreshing acids to give structure to the body of relatively ripe fruits and sweet dark tobacco leaves. Has a moderately grainy presence. This wine is perfectly at apogee. (94 pts.)
Neal my friend, you would be all over this wine. MarcF and I shared a 1982 a couple of years ago, and it shined even more. This Chateau way out-performed in these vintages.
Robert, there is a book by Guillermo Cabrera Infante called Holy Smoke. It covers the stories and traditions of the Cuban cigar houses. Great read. Your note made reach for a cigar instead of wine!
The best bottle of 1961 Cheval Blanc I ever drank was just like this - the cork fell in. And initially, I assumed it was dead. But then the whole room filled with beautiful aromas!
Great story. Bordeaux can be pretty tough to kill. And, it can age quite well, even the ones that are somewhat reasonably priced. The hard thing in Bordeaux is knowing which ones are still made correctly.
I opened another great bottle of the 1985 two Sundays ago. Then forgot about the last glass in the bottle on the counter until tonight. And damn — it was still delicious. No oxidation. Some sort of magic going on at the estate in the ‘80s.
Jayson, this is borderline Snopes worthy. You may need to detail the conditions a little better so we can try to replicate! (First with some random ‘80’s Bordeaux before we try to track down the magical elixir)!!?!
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