In fact we started the evening by unscrewing the cap of a bottle of NZ Syrah: 2006 Gardo Morris from Hawke's Bay. While it was a good wine, which very nice young, fresh fruit and lovely smoked aromas (bacon), we decided it to be a bot too young and raw for the mushroom risotto I was preparing for dinner. So, return to the cellar and, to be sure to offer something quite different, instead I pulled a bottle of 1978 Château Lynch Bages
It had a nice brick colour, still with some depth and a very classic, elegant and fine tuned nose of a mature Bordeaux, with all that should be there, mainly stable notes and cedar. The taste was elegant and mouth filling, with rounded tannins and an acidity that probably is starting to be the result of age and a bit dominating the main impression of the wine. Nevertheless, a fine, elegant and classic mature Bordeaux. I wouldn't really keep it any longer since I feel that the acidity might start to become too unbalance and, in fact, I might have one or two bottles left, that I need to find in my slightly disorganized cellar. A great buy at a Christie's auction a few years ago for about 25 Euros. A funny detail is that this bottle has been to Argentina and then come back to Europe for the Christie's sale, as was evident from the tax slip that was affixed across the cork.
Cheers, Anders
BTW, I think the Gardo Morris will be a very nice wine if given a few years of cellaring. Not unlike a Crozes Hermitage in style.