I'll begin with the 2005 Romanee St Vivant. Fantastic stuff. Much darker and denser looking than a typical Burgundy. The slight increase in viscosity being apparent on the side of the glass when tipped. The nose was huge and focused with tons of red fruit and a considerable floral character of crushed violets and dried rose petals. Pink and purple pot pourri. Not too sweet. Some fatty characteristics as well. The flavours were not yet resolved. Unsurprisingly, this will need a full 20 years to reach it's peak. Rich and distinctively scarlet in it's fruits, this wine showed none of the vices of over extraction.
Long on the palate and balanced, despite its youth. I have no doubt in my mind that there'll still be significant fruit left come 2033. Hold your horses!
Next up, one of the wines I brought. I was very excited about the 1978 Lopez de Heredia Gran Reserva Vina Tondonia. I'm sad to say that I completely buggered it up. The night before the party I wanted to open it just to remove the sediment. I was worried about drunk hands mashing the 35 year old cork the day of the event. Just a quick bottle/decanter/bottle/vacuum job then... Wrong! after half an hour prodding and probing with a leaf opener the cork had retreated 3mm into the neck of the bottle. Surely I couldn't use a traditional cork screw? This called for drastic action. Push through and decant.
I tried in vain to mash the cork out of the empty bottle or in some way coax it back into a removable position. After another half hour I gave up and re-purposed an old Chilean wine bottle. By that time this old wine had too much air and was well past it's prime. Who'da thunk it? A 35 year old cork that's like a bullet! That was a blow out, but I also brought a back-up. More on that next time.
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