Without doubt, I owe the most interesting tastings I have experienced to Albert Givton, an inveterate collector and student of wine. He recently held a dinner that involved a single bottle which represented each decade of the 20th century, served along with an excellent dinner. There were also a few additions to the tasting list that didn’t follow the one wine per decade rule. I list them in actual tasting order.
2002 Fontaine Gagnard Criots-Batard Montrachet 1er cru - you won’t be seeing this AOC very often – it is only 1.5 hectares in size. Light straw in colour, a nose of vanilla and rice pudding that just kept getting better as the wine opened up in the glass, and a smooth long finish. Very good.
1983 Coche Dury Meursault Narvaux – the vineyard on these labels was written in by hand in pencil by the owner! A fair bit of colour, and a nice citrus nose. Surprisingly fresh in the mouth, no doubt the result of excellent acidity. Needs drinking.
1989 Frederic Esmonin Griottes Chambertin – a mellow fruit driven nose, and a mature wine, supple, soft and pleasant.
1990 Frederic Esmonin Griottes Chambertin – some fruit and a lot of rubber in this nose, pretty good fruit levels, all spoiled a bit by the pruniness of the wine, a tad dried and perhaps slightly heat damaged. Amazingly, this was the only wine that showed as anything other than in good shape.
1985 Grand Puy Lacoste – a delightful cedary claret nose excellent levels of fruit, good length. A delightful wine in amazing shape. I should add that Albert keeps a very cold cellar in order to preserve his wines longer than would be the norm, so if you see notes for good wines that seem long dead from other sources, that is consistent..
1978 Chave Hermitage – this is one of Chave’s best wines, but I didn’t think it showed as well as a bottle tasted several years ago. This one had both leather and fruit in the nose, and was balanced in the mouth, still with pretty good levels of fruit in the mouth, with a long dry finish. It lacked, however, the aromatics I see in my notes from the last time I tasted it – the vanilla, tar and garrigue that lifted the nose out of the ordinary. Maybe it is getting tired, or maybe this bottle was slightly under par? Still, very enjoyable.
1962 Vega Sicilia Unico – a definite “Wow!” wine. An interesting sweet vanilla nose consistent with the use of American oak, very persistent, and slightly warm, very full in the mouth with lots of tannins even after almost 40 years, and a ton of sweet fruit. An impressive wine that is clearly just hitting stride now and should last for many decades!
1955 Talbot – interestingly, this was a Nicolas bottling done in the normal Bordeaux bottle style. Not much happening in the nose, but mellow on palate with soft tannins and medium length. Guess it takes a half century to soften up a rough Talbot – this must have been a brute when young.
1934 Haut Bailly (magnum) – tough choices in the 1930s as the only decent vintages were 1934 and 1937 (the latter best for white wine). This wine had a sweet mushroom nose, lightening edges, soft tannins, decent fruit and was very much still alive. I’m sure the large format helped.
1945 Haut Bailly (B&G bottling) – there was never much of this vintage around, as the French were otherwise occupied (pun intended) at the time and the wines had to be harvested and made by the wives of the owners for the most part. Light colour, a tobacco scented claret nose, some fruit present and slightly elevated acidity.
1923 Henri de Bahezre Richebourg Tete de Cuvee – this wine was amazing. It still had excellent colour, a smoky nose with sweet cherry fruit, and was middle weight, long and tasty. Excellent.
1916 Gruaud Larose – the only wine other than the Riesling to have been recorked. Still with good colour, a delightful spicy nose with perhaps a hint of truffle. It was all there, fruit, tannin and acidity, although as is often the case, the fruit faded after a bit, though not as fast as some wines of this age I have tasted that had a useful life of minutes after opening. To ponder what was happening in Europe when this wine was being crafted really made one stop and think!
1946 Hermannshof Niersteiner Riesling Beerenauslese – I was a bit surprised by the lightness of colour at this age as the wine was a medium straw. Sweet nose that disclosed hints of both petrol and botrytis, although the actual level of sugar had predictably been reduced by polymerization over the decades, and it was now no sweeter than an auslese. Very good acidity that had no doubt contributed to the excellent preservation of this wine.
1907 Blandys Bual Madeira – this was bottled in 2003 and hadn’t really taken on much of the greenish tinge on the edges that really old Madeiras often show. Medium brown in colour, with a hot sweet nose and in the mouth, while showing a sweet entry, it actually was reasonably dry in the long finish. These wines should be far more popular than they are.
Thanks to Albert for an unrepeatable wine experience.