Welcome back to Notable, where I write about interesting wines from recent tasting. Lately I’ve enjoyed many wines without a pen or tablet at hand, poured with dinner as distractions from the world rather than attractions unto themselves.
But every few weeks my husband and I host a friend for a purposeful tasting. The friend provides wines that have slumbered for decades in his cold northern cellar, and I provide whatever samples I’ve been working through. It’s a study in contrasts, since the samples are invariably new releases still figuring out their new lives in bottle, while the aged wines, mostly French classics, have lived so long in bottle they’ve already had to redecorate twice.
Recently he offered these two Bordeaux, from Left Bank and Right, both from the 1995 vintage: Château Léoville Barton Saint-Julien and Château Monbousquet Saint-Émilion Grand Cru.
One of them was wonderful, and the other was flawed, but so subtly it sent me on a chase to find out why and how, and especially whether the flaw had originated in making, aging, or a mix.
Let’s start with the better wine.
