buying a 40 y/o bottle of wine

Oct 31, 2006 32 Replies
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We were given a '66 Richebourg once, it was fantastic. Of course that was 15 years ago...

A 66 Figeac sounds good to me, might be holding up and maybe not too too expensive.

-E

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1966 Romanee St.Vivant is bidding at $2100. I had several '66 Rominee-Conti wines and they were still excellent as of 2001. However these were out of peoples cellars and were bought in 1968 or 1969 so the price at the time was a lot more reasonable. This is the problem with finding great older red wines. A magnum of Chateau Laffite is listed as 301.88 from Switzerland. A well stored magnum would be more likely drinkable.

A good German TBA would be ideal for ending a romantic meal.

No one mentions Sauternes or a German TBA or a Tokay aszu 5 putts? Certainly they'll keep and be reasonably priced (relatively)

Anders "Emery Davis" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@loki.domain.org...

Well, he did mention red. I tried to steer towards port, but she doesn't like.

In any case, even if interested in dessert wines, while those are some of the fallback answers for safe wines to age 30-60 years, not sure so good in this case. '66 I'm pretty sure was not a very good year for Sauternes,virtually no botyrtis, the one I had (Coutet) was empty (though technically alive). I've don't remember of a '66 TBA, not usually one of the recommended years- and my experience is good TBAs with age are NOT cheap (I tried to find a '59 to put away for Betsy's

50th, no known producers were less than $400/half). I have little Tokaji experience, I'll bow to you and Ian for that.

I still think just based on my expereince and vintage rep Bdx is by far the safest bet (though obvious risks). I've had the '66 Gruaud, Ducru, LCC, Montrose, Mouton in last few years. All were quite drinkable, with one of the Moutons being weakest (and other Mouton being strongest, same source, the vagaries of bottle variation) -but I certainly would have gone through weakest bottle at my dinner table, it was well into the "worth drinking" area. And because of the relatively large production of most Bordeaux prices are comparatively reasonable- all of those but the Mouton are sometimes available for $100-200.

Emery, I love Figeac, but I've noticed it seems to have gained in price a lot recently. Cheapest '66 is $225 at Grapes in Rye. I considered this for our group present to friend (owner is a casual friend and usually will give me 15% case discount no matter what I buy), before deciding on LLC.

"Rob" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Going to

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and specifying vintage 1966 and the U.S. yields 237 different wines available in the U.S. You know now that it'll be a hit and miss situation - so why not just pick one bottle. The main point is that it is a 1966 and if poor, you tell her "You've kept much better than this, my ... (endearment of your choice :-)". Have a backup bottle of French champagne and the evening should be memorable. hth Anders

Ouch, red it was, yes :-) And Tokaji is better left to Ian or Michael - I know only what they tell. Looking through the search engine of wein-plus I found 537 different wines, but none satisfying (would you have a Liebfraumilch 1966 at 100USD...!!?)

Would a Rioja fit the bill? Anders

"DaleW" skrev i meld> No one mentions Sauternes or a German TBA or a Tokay aszu 5 putts?

Well, he did mention red. I tried to steer towards port, but she doesn't like.

In any case, even if interested in dessert wines, while those are some of the fallback answers for safe wines to age 30-60 years, not sure so good in this case. '66 I'm pretty sure was not a very good year for Sauternes,virtually no botyrtis, the one I had (Coutet) was empty (though technically alive). I've don't remember of a '66 TBA, not usually one of the recommended years- and my experience is good TBAs with age are NOT cheap (I tried to find a '59 to put away for Betsy's

50th, no known producers were less than $400/half). I have little Tokaji experience, I'll bow to you and Ian for that.

I still think just based on my expereince and vintage rep Bdx is by far the safest bet (though obvious risks). I've had the '66 Gruaud, Ducru, LCC, Montrose, Mouton in last few years. All were quite drinkable, with one of the Moutons being weakest (and other Mouton being strongest, same source, the vagaries of bottle variation) -but I certainly would have gone through weakest bottle at my dinner table, it was well into the "worth drinking" area. And because of the relatively large production of most Bordeaux prices are comparatively reasonable- all of those but the Mouton are sometimes available for $100-200.

Emery, I love Figeac, but I've noticed it seems to have gained in price a lot recently. Cheapest '66 is $225 at Grapes in Rye. I considered this for our group present to friend (owner is a casual friend and usually will give me 15% case discount no matter what I buy), before deciding on LLC.

No idea about '59 Tokaj. The dream vintage of that region and era (and possibly of the second half of the 20th century) is 1957.

M.

I agree with DaleW's comments, plus those of others. My first choice would be to look for a '67 Vintage Port (need to check my database to make sure that it was declared, and by whom - '63 was a monster, but very pricy. I just do not recall if '67 was declared.) Baring that, a nice Bdx. (again, don't have my database at home for vintages, but a super-second growth should still be holding up.) you might want to check Bollinger, the Champagne house. They do a line of RD (Recently Disgourged) vintage bubblies, and might well have a recent release of the '67, that has just been bottled. You might spend a few extra $'s, but it will be worthwhile.

I did a Taylor '48 for my wife's 50th and it was spectacular. Luckily, I had acquired it some many years before and cellared it, as the price was running ~US$1900, as the event approached, and we worried that we would need more than the one bottle, that I had. As it turned out, the sommelier got 18 Port pours from that bottle and all were very pleased.

Hunt

Rob,

Finding a 40 yo Burg, that is within the price and still drinkable is probably impossible.

You might also want to go to

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and poke around their older wines. Most of their stock comes from respected cellars, and you might well find a CalCab from one of the old-timers that would still be drinking well. I just did a vertical of Inglenooks (back in the good old days) and their Cabs from the 50's & 60's were still showing well. Did not get to sample any of the older ones, though :-{. Only two of the wines were definitely "over the hill."

Good luck, Hunt

The Madirans of that period were chocked full of tannat, took forever to mature, and were never all that expensive.

old style barolo probably held up. same with gattinara and ghemme.

went to a small cellar in ghemme a few years back, and they had wines back to the times when that was considered gaul(slight exxageration). we bought a couple 30 year old wines, and thet were quite sound.

^^^^^^^ disgorged.

M.

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