Old Freaks: Semillion 80, SauvBl 20 ... long and slightly meandering Hello, Well, he done did it again, and I don´t mean JMF. It´s Our Best Guy, mad man Mårten, who has been gracious enough to host a SERIES of tastings of OLD wines - henceforth, known as the Old Freaks´ tasting group. The theme of yesterday was botrytized from Bordeaux. The slightly greater, and the slightly not so great but not bad for all that. Mostly Semillion, but a touch of SauvBl to add acidity. Please note that I do not point out that the wines are sweet; if I do mention it, it is because the sweetness is in some way remarkable (e g, by its absence?). First one was a reference, meaning, what you can buy in the store today. The lightest (in terms of color) of the flight but still a very appealing straw-to-gold yellow. n warm, sweet, fleeting whiff of sulphur, fiery, strawberry-rhubarbs p sweetness in the attack, acidity that gains and gains, very viscous sp?, nice tingly spicyness in the body. Good length in the aftertaste, with some elegance in the fruity acidity. Hey, not bad. Ch Fontebride (Peignac) 2002 A mystery wine, next. Nut brown, almost. n anise, fennel seeds, butter, oak, more butter still, then dill, varnish raisins p maturity, wonderful sweetness, much less viscosity than #1, a complex aftertaste of bitterness, dill, fresh acidity, and raisiny sweetness that lingers on and on. Why a mystery? Because the label was torn. Its from Ste Croix de Mont, a 1962, Ch Jean(...)at Darkest of the flight, next one: n burnt or toasted notes, wet wood, melted sugar, prominent licorice, anise, cough drops 1, fruit, acidity p maturity, fennel seeds, acidity only in the aftertaste, very good length but, to my mind, less complexity than #2. However, a sentiment not shared by the other tasters. Ch La Rame also Ste Croix, 1970. Of the old wines, the lightest in color: n prominent sulphur and gunsmoke which, happily, blows over. Wet wolly mitten, bitter almonds, honey, hawthorne flowers. p something esther like, a bitterness, less elegance. Overall sentiment was that this may have been the wine of least quality. Cru de Cailleves 1964 Loupiac n honey and cream, rhubarbs, slight oxidation, juniper bush, old oranges p wet wool, less balance between acidity and sweetnes - in fact the least sweet of the wines For reasons unfathomable to self, this met with enthusiasm amongst the cognoscenti. Organoleptic blindness-fatigue on part of self? Ch du Cros Haut Loupiac 1945 n volatile acidity, honey, wooly mitten, minerality, oxidation p Imagine an old wooden cupboard, left in a summer cottage for decades. Now, imagine putting your head inside said cupboard. Now, imagine that as a taste. Cellar, undergrowth, acidity more aggressive than in any other of the wines. This wine is dying or drying out. It definitely falls apart after being in the glbutt for an hour. Ch Mayne-Bert Haut Barsac 1939 As an extra, a wine from Monbazillac that Mårten had wanted to find a pretext for opening (he really IS like that) This one is really, really, mahogany colored. n varnish, dill, whiff of volatile acidity p lightness of sweet, lightness of acidity, if mahogany had taste it would taste like this ... such balance, length, elegance ... Wine of the night. Ch le Fagé, 1947. What´s to be learnt from this evening? Well, if you have any Mayne-Bert 1939 in your cellar, you should contemplate drinking them now ... ;) Note that while there is a discrepancy in quality, not one of the wines were BAD. To me, this gives the message that I would not hesitate to take a chance on a minor sticky from a minor commune down the road, or across the river, from d'Yquem ... oh, yes, and that in none of these, except the reference, was there any residual stickiness. The viscosity of the first one had all but disappeared in all of the others. The recurring notes of dill and wool would emanate from oak casks, but there is a spectrum ranging from anise, fennel, licorice, over to juniper in several of them. Whence is that? While apparently there is a portion of SauvBl in all of them, I could discern no primary aromas of that in any of them - not to be wondered at, perhaps, in wines 42+ years old ... Oh yes, and when we got home we found letters to the effect that I had pbutted the 2-honors course, while Xina had failed the practicals while pbutting the theoreticals - we celebrated and commiserated over a glbutt of Alfiero Boffa´s Vigne Uniche Barbera d' Asti More 2002 which is a very good wine in its own right. Cheers Nils Gustaf 1 The cough drop par excellence in Scandinavia is "Danske Kungens Bröstkarameller" (roughly, chest sweets of the King of Denmark), and they are dominated by anise. -- Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se 
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