Friends dropped in last night after dinner which called for a sipper, so we opened a bottle of Sean Thackeray Pleiades XIII (bottled 2004). It had that lovely spicey iodine nose, lovely fruit cakey red fruit, and almost nonexistent tannins. It drinks very well right now and should be drunk over the next year. My guests were in love with it.
So one bottle was not enough, and hubby went to the cellar to get a second. Glasses were poured all around and someone remarked that this wine was darker. It was, and in the nose there was more of everything. On the palate, there was a firmness from greater acidity and some tannins, some black fruit and overall greater complexity. It seemed younger. Then we looked at the bottle: oops! It's actually older, it's the prior vintage, the Sean Thackeray Pleaides XII. No hurry on these.
