Blog posts of '2015' 'April'

1960 Sera’s vintage port: This was the stranger in our midst : 1960 was a vintage that was also widely declared but lots of producers struggled with bad conditions that year and had either low yields or compromised quality. The estate itself is somewhat of a mystery: hardly any information about it ...

1959 Evangile was a mise négoce (merchant bottling) with the level of the wine slightly low at upper shoulder. With wines that haven’t been bottled at the chateau it’s always difficult to know whether the content will reflect on what is stated on the label. In this case everything seemed ok with one...

This was a bottle with level at already mid shoulder and hence a color even darker than usual. Luckily, no signs of seepage were showing anywhere so expectations were still quite high, this was a legend after all : the Lur Saluce family have been producing sweet botrytised wines at the chateau since...

The 1989 Vieux Chateau Certan had besides it slightly lower level also a somewhat damaged label and some corrosion at the bottom of the capsule, so was somewhat likely to be not up to standard. In this case it was better to not offer it for sale and try it ourselves. And unfortunately, not being up ...

This bottle of 1985 had a little lower level too - a very top shoulder, and to make it impossible to sell the label was completely missing, so on the other hand this was perfect material for a tasting. The color here a somewhat similar maroon though a tad more reddish and concentrated. The smells ho...

1996 l’Evangile : This is a wine that was terribly tannic right after bottling and there were lots of doubts whether it would ever come round, so I was very curious to find out what a almost 2 decades of bottle ageing could accomplish.

The medium cherry color gave away it’s age and that was about...

1959 Volnay by Arthur Barolet : The vintage label for this bottle was missing unfortunately, but it comes from a cellar where we bought several bottles and this was kept in the same alcove as the other bottles which still had their 1959 vintage slip so we were quite sure this also was a 1959. Dr Art...

1959 Coteaux du Layon by Moulin Touchais

This producer too is legendary, known for producing excellent, mostly sweeter wines from late harvested chenin blanc that sometimes matures for decades before being released. In the glass the wine is opulent and viscous, shiny light caramel colored with an...

1975 Château Montrose -  The slightly lower level and age clearly showed in the color, a dark mahogany that didn’t forecast a lively, vibrant wine. First impressions were cloves and some vegetal tones like geranium, shortly after followed by venison with a tinge of perfume I can only describe as gra...

1970 Canon La Gaffelière : a very Top Shoulder but here the color was much lighter red with a pomegranate edge. Right after opening and pouring it gave off a whiff of a brand new beach ball, that scent of plastic or vinyl that I sometimes find in older Cabernets. As soon as this dissipated we were r...