1997 Chateau Bernadotte, Haut-Medoc
Awhile back, I got an amazing deal on a case and a half of this and jumped on it. The only prior Bernadotte I'd had was the already-in-bottle and fruitier 2000 which bears little resemblance to this lesser, more austere wine. But it has outlasted many a more pedigreed 97 and we have enjoyed numerous bottles in the past year during which this wine emerged from sleep and started showing modest secondary characteristics. Now, it's still an ungiving wine in which I am betting the tannins outlast the fruit--and people who want their wine to crawl up and cuddle in their laps would understandably hate it--but it's nonetheless a traditionally styled wine that goes beautifully with food AND it's stil improving in the bottle. This glass that's sitting beside me is better than the wine was when first poured three hours ago.
1984 D'Issan, Margaux
Here is a nose for necrophiliacs like Otto: a musty medicinal aroma that my husband calls 'formaldehyde' but which I have no descriptor for although 'bandaid-y' might be close, dried rose petals, dry mint, and caramel. The palate is simpler: sour cherries on the mid palate and cola nut on the finish. A wine clearly past it's time but those lovely aged notes make the experience well worth it. It doesn't have the potential of a younger wine, but a younger wine doesn't have the grace and beauty this wine does. My husband just called it "poignant". Good word.
