2000 Château Troplong Mondot - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (2/7/2023)
From a six bottle futures order, two bottle to my Dad, and four to me, we never had a chance to share one. More than twenty years after that purchase the first of the six was opened. A couple hours of air wasn’t quite sufficient. It seemed rather blocky and monolithic until about ninety minutes later. Twenty-four hours later it was even more open, making it clear that it didn’t really want to be opened in the first place. Ultimately there was a wealth of dark currant and blackberry fruit, with deep running earthiness, some spice, and still firm tannins. Twenty-three years post vintage I was expecting/hoping it would be more open, but at least there are more bottles to follow over the next decade plus.