All kinds of wines

Over the last months we’ve been tasting all kinds of wines, from small or unknown producers to some very good ones, but today’s tasting was pure indulgence : first up was 1959 l’Evangile followed by 1954 d’Yquem.

The 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 exception : the vintage was stamped on in blue ink instead of having been printed on which did raise a bit of doubt of concerning its authenticity.
As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”, so to lift all doubts we just had to open it.
The cork unfortunately was very dark, completely saturated and crumbled apart upon opening the bottle, so no information could be recovered here. The color of the wine did confirm its age however : dark cognac colored with just a hint of red showing in the rim which is what you could expect from a wine 55 years old with a slightly lower level.
Incredibly enough, there were still some scents of jammy fruit lingering here albeit overshadowed by lots of wood, cedar and smokiness, abundant sweetness and roasted pine nuts with even a dash of marzipan after a couple of minutes in the glass.
On the palate the wine was incredibly warm and generous, with a balance and length that can only be found in great wines from classic vintages which made it a perfect meditation wine. We tasted this wine during lunch and I took a glass with me to my desk afterwards, slowly savoring it with each sip bringing me closer to a state of Zen any well trained Buddhist monk would be jealous of. It made me realize we were lucky enough to have a stunning example of a well made Bordeaux and how it can still amaze after more than half a century.
With the quality this thoroughbred was showing there was no more doubt that we were drinking exactly what was stated on the label, a great Pomerol from a top vintage.

So how can you top this? We tried it with Yquem 1954.

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 end of the 18th century. But besides its great heritage, this particular bottle hadn’t a lot in its favor with the lower level and dark color and on top of that 1954 not being the best Sauterne vintage.
Pouring it was is like pouring dark golden syrup, it came out in a thick steady stream, immediately clinging to the glass with incredibly viscosity. It was dark amber colored and immediately opening up with tons of aromas. First the honey hits you with a concentration deep enough to bring a hibernating bear back from its sleep, then was followed by dried apricots and orange zest covered in dark chocolate, cognac and orange liqueur, with some rich creaminess and a touch of caramel at the back. From the very first sip it’s the sweetness that obviously dominates, but there is enough nice acidity here as well managing to keep it all together with again that slight bitterness of the caramel in the finish. And what a finish this has : exhaling I ran out of breath long before the last aromas of this wine had dissipated, we’re talking minutes here, not seconds. If this is Yquem from a lesser vintage after 60 years, I’d love to be there when someone opens up a bottle of 1937.

Yquem truly is in a league of its own, thus incomparable to other dessert wines, so even more impossible to compare to the Evangile we had before. All I can conclude is they both were exceptional and this tasting just made it very difficult for us to come up with something interesting for next week…