My taste for mature wines…

In the “world” of wine, everyone would like to taste everything, others are aiming at cellaring great bottles for special occasion as anniversaries and birth years. But the question these person should ask themsaelves is; do they like mature wines? Why invest money in these bottles for longer cellaring time if the result doesn’t fulfil them? One should know that older wines have almost nothing in common with youger one available on our monopoly’s shelves!

Along the years, I had the oppotunity to open botlles of mature wines and confirm the fact that I like that style, the taste and the history behind them. That is one of the reasons why when I travel in the United States a part of my “wine buying” is done with older wines.

And as I do almost every year at the end of summer / beginning of fall season, I open with my family a bottle of wine from the vintage of my birth year, 1979. That’s exactly what I did only few days ago. Here are my comments about the wine:

Château Smith Haut-Lafitte Grand Cru Classé Graves 1979

The bottle is in great shape and looks like it was well preserved, its appearance not betraying its age and the label isn’t damaged. The bottle fill level is perfect. After a really short time and no particular effort, the cork came out in one piece.

The wine is orange-brownish brick color. Really shy at first, the wine took at least 30 minutes before showing aromas of old wood, tobacco, fall leaves and dry fruits notes. Being on the same flavor profile, the wine shows its elegance and finesse on the palate, with a long finish and a medium adicity level which I liked since that type of wine often have high and sometimes even an anoying acidity level. Paired with our smiles, we did enjoyed a lot this bottle, fulfilling our expectations that were, let’s say, pretty low, which helped the moment being even more appreciated. Can’t wait for the next bottle of mature wine to be opened! Excellent (91)

The wine becomes orange-brown as it age