Sometimes the wine gods taketh away

WINE TALK
1

My kids and their SOs were here for a few days, and Friday night I wanted to bring out some very old wines to introduce them to the joys of mature wines from around the world, all wines that have been on the earth longer than any of them.

I’ve had plenty of old wines and know the hit rate is always uncertain. I brought up three bottles, hoping that I would perhaps find two that showed well. Later, in a moment of doubt (reminscent of Moses striking the rock), I grabbed a fourth bottle.

All from the 1970s, around the world. The bottles were:

1961 Pape Clement…bought from London about five years ago, the level and color were very good.
1970 Palmer…how could this fail to impress, slightly low fill, but…
1971 Conterno Barolo…I’ve had this for many years, looked great…
1976 Clos des Ducs…had one of these a couple of years ago, very good…

The Pape Clement was totally DOA, sad, but that kind of goes with the territory, so not much blood was spilt.
The Palmer, same thing, undrinkable. For this one I did kind of ball my fists, I was really hoping for a great bottle.
The Conterno, very mediocre, just drinkable, this was not the night I had envisioned.
Sir Duc, pretty poor, really kind of dilapidated. What a disappointing showing from four wines that could have been great!

After opening the first few, I went down and grabbed a 1972 Armand Clos des Epeneaux, kind of because it was there. It was really not bad, a bit of barnyard and the fruit was still present, but I was bringing it out at cellar temp so it needed some time.

We got through dinner drinking the Conterno and the Epeneaux, and focused on the food more than the wine because there was nothing much to say about the wine (and my wife and son-in-law made some great Syrian dishes, fatteh and chicken kabsa).

But after dinner I went back to the earlier wines, and discovered that the Volnay had completely changed and opened up beautifully, it became really lovely, and we closed the evening with that wine, now lush and aromatic. It was quite a shock to see it transform after a couple of hours. No such luck with any of the others.
I’m not sure I made wine lovers out of any of my family, but I’m glad one of the bottles came back to life.

Older wines at home 1_2025
Older wines at home 1_20252016×1512 284 KB

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How did you serve the wines? Pop and pour? Open early? Decant?
In my experience old wines always need time to unfold.

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Always difficult to be strident based on the colour in a photo, but the 1st two in the photo do look shot to me, with a strong contrast to the colour in the Pommard. Oxygen a bit too late for them.

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Not the case here, but I’ve had the 4 bottle experience before, sans resurrection, where I later wondered if something I had eaten or a subtle medical issue was having an effect on my sense of taste or smell.

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Not as epic as your fail, but this happened to me a couple years ago:

Can three wines be flawed on the same night? I think these were. All three decanted 1-2 hours, put back into the bottle, and then I drank about 1/3rd of each bottles over 3 hours.

1995 Château Léoville Poyferré - St. Julien
1996 Château Lagrange (St. Julien)
2000 Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte

The Lagrange was mine, I’d decanted it one hour a couple years ago and it was gangbusters. Tonight, some bordeaux nuance on the nose, and the palate is slightly sour and forgettable. Same with the other 2, the Leoville was the most sour, such that the owner had brough a backup and seemed concerned. At the very beginning, I got a distinct but light whiff of nail polish. These weren’t obviously flawed, not corked, but they didn’t show the way that they should. I’m leaving them unscored and likely flawed with volatile acidity.

Funny but under these circumstances, my starter white, an inexpensive Condrieu, was clearly wine of the night. So sad.

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Paul, wines opened and a few ounces poured off to watch, then served about an hour later.

Ian you’re right for sure on the Palmer, far too pale.

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