Planning to serve a 89 Pichon Baron this evening. Its been standing up for a day or two. I don’t have many older wines and would love some guidance on decant routine. Thanks in advance.
Well stored bottles of 1989 Pichon Baron are relatively young-tasting wines. I would decant this (to remove sediment and give it some air) a couple hours in advance of planned consumption. It’s a great wine - along with Lynch Bages one of the top 1989 Bordeaux.
IMHO it will show better when you first only open it for several hours in advance (slow ox) - and only THEN decant it for (let´s say) 1-2 hours.
0.02
I had a 1989 Cos this week. Aerated it for 5-6 hours in open decanter…I think it could have used more given it youth. Check in along the way, though, IMO.
It wasn’t showing much at all at 3 hours, when I left it to keep opening. It seemed best the next day, but peaked then.
Agree.
Amazing how youthful this wine is. A wine that I seriously regret not buying by the truck-load.
Enjoy it, but it definitely needs a few hours open.
When did you have that opportunity?
No one has no regrets…but…some have overloaded cellars. Maybe we’re better off letting the truck stay in the depot sometimes. Our tastes change, too.
I did an 89 Bordeaux tasting about 2 years ago, and this was by far the most backward and closed example we tasted that night. Based on that tasting, I thought it was at least 10 years away from optimal drinking.
Had the same one as Andrew L. Definitely the most closed '89 I’ve had. Give it lots of time.
Had a 1989 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande last night, decanted and enjoyed over a few hours. Showed at it’s best within 20-30 minutes of decanting, got shy at about 45 minutes and just blossomed around 2 1/2 to 3 hours, at which point it was truly sublime and impossible not to finish. I’m starting to feel like this is most respectful way to treat any older bottle, plan to make an evening out of following and enjoying it’s evolution.
As a side note, we opened a 2005 Chateau Bourgneuf just in case the Pichon Longueville was too closed or off. While (unsurprisingly) not as much an experience as the Pichon, the Bourgneuf was just great and seems to be entering into an early drinking window. I wanna say it was $25ish on futures? What a killer deal.
The “problem” with this approach, Alex…is that many people (me included most times) don’t have a “few hours” to plan an evening to enjoy its evolution. (And, if I had the inclination, I’d be alone.) So…I try to to speed up the process with my “older bottles”, ie, get beyond that initial “showing its best” (which is usually vibrant fruit) and flushing out with aeration its maturity from sitting in my cellar for 23+ years. “Blossoming at 2/12-3 hours” means effectively that it will happen after the dishes are done and I am heading to bed…which is why so many such wines taste better ie, more harmonious and more mellowed…the next day. I think most of the wines from France are a heck of lot more durable than we think…even such “older” bottles. This is something I never realized 25 years ago…but am glad to have finally figured out…so I can enjoy some “mature” bottles I bought at release.
Well Stuart, as I’ve owned very few “mature” bottles which command this kind of attention it’s really not that hard to schedule an evening around following them!
The problem is usually with those who have no such interest in doing so…but are involved in most evenings. That’s probably why I do most of my “attention” the next morning or day. Even I don’t have the inclination to sit at a table for six hours…when I can aerate to a place I’d like to start with…and go from there.
Older wines, in my experience, usually go from exuberant to retreating into a shell…and then out…and the timing can be very tricky…and the spread long.