Hi all celebrating a birthday I found it appropriate to delve into the cellar and get out a Mouton Rothschild -82 with a Beychevelle -98 acting as a backdrop.
The Beychevelle first: Classic Bordeaux, still tannic, but not overly so. Plenty backbone here, cedar, good fruit and good acidity. A fine wine, but will probably benefit from a few more years, if the fruit holds up, that is. And then the Mouton - it is with some apprehension you get into it - what to expect from a 700USD wine? A restrained bouquet, still quite youthful in color - nothing brown here. Very smooth, all tannins apparently resolved - but first impression was one of insipidity after the youthful robustness of the previous wine. But, lo and behold! As time went by, the Mouton grew in the glass and revealed layers of complexity unmatched by the Beychevelle. Pure velvet in mouthfeel it filled all internal space with... what? Cedar or pencil shavings? No, nothing of that. More like vanilla and toffee to me, with only hints of brambles and maybe plums. An exquisite experience - but worth 700-1000$ or more? No - but I wouldn't mind having to drink more bottles of that stuff :-) Fortunately, it only cost me just 45USD back in 1983...
Rounded off with a Suduiraut 1986. Splendid mature wine, golden color, botrytised nose, surprisingly little sweetness but a raisiny taste that made my brother exclaim - hey, this is just like the Tokay I had in Budapest last year (No wine geek he had no idea what sort of Tokay he had had...) Have another one in cellar, no hurry.
Ah, well, I've a couple MR -82's too left - think they are at a drinking plateau now - will keep a few more years, but why wait for the decline?
Anders