1976 Château Lagrange St. Julien - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (12/15/2007)
From a recent auction. Level a decent high shoulder, bottle significantly bin-soiled (this the worst bottle of the lot with label missing completely). Some evidence of leakage at top of cork, which with some encouragement came out in one piece, soaked the full length.
Colour is a reasonably bright slightly tawny claret, relatively weak at the rim.
Dominant mushroom aroma, with a faint whiff of coffee, with little change on swirling. The only fruit aroma is a background raspberry scent.
Little fruit left on the palate and to be truthful not much complexity. Acidity is nicely weighted and the net result is light & refreshing with a faint earthiness, but without anything to get at all excited over. Drinkable, but fading away for sure.
UPDATE: The night after (the half left in the bottle, simply recorked). On removing the cork, certainly more fruit. Still pretty lean and the touch of coffee/earthiness on the finish. Just a touch more fruit helps the balance though and it went very nicely with a smoked pheasant, salami & mushroom risotto. More enjoyable than just drinkable tonight.