Last minute treat!

You have often heard me, dear reader, talk about how lucky I am in having good friends, friends who not only look out for me but have helped me in substantial ways in my hour(s) of need. One of them, ACM, happened to be in the neighbourhood today, after extensive travelling on business and leisure (the Christmas holidays) over the last few weeks, and invited me to a last minute dinner and catch-up last night.

Many years ago, during my properly active wine merchant days and when we both lived in London, I used to occasionally help top up his cellar with rather fine things from time to time. Though without stock of my own these days I am happy to advise if and when needed, and to help in the consumption of what is already in friends' cellars as and when invited. Some of the wines catch even me by surprise, rather unusual for an old dog like me, but on this occasion I must admit to a very pleasant turn of events.

We only had two wines for the two of us, one of which was no surprise at all, a glorious blanc des blancs Comtes de Champagne 2006 from Taittinger. This is made only in good years (though with global warming and more efficient technology these are more plentiful) and, as the description previously given implies, is made only from Chardonnay grapes. These come from top vineyards rated grand cru and, together with the attention heaped on the grapes by the Taittinger team, produce a very refined wine indeed. This is class in a glass, toasty, yeasty, spicy, refined and delicate, but not lacking power and length. The vintage we tasted, from a tricky vintage and over ten years old, was young and vigorous with more in store - a superb, restrained champagne and a real treat!

The surprise of the evening, though, was a claret from the 1975 vintage. Now 1975 claret has had a chequered history, starting life lauded as a super star when first tasted, only to fall from grace in the mid to late eighties as the wines failed to soften and its tannins proved to be longer lived than the fruit. This general opinion lingered, yet time has helped some of the better wines emerge from their tannin cocoon and achieve their long-expected stature. So when my friend proposed a 1975 I was highly sceptical, fearing the worst but knowing I was safe, as there were several potentially interesting alternatives.

Chateau Lynch Bages (Lunch Bags to the UK wine trade...!) is a wine long regarded as batting above its 5th Growth official classification; so it proved this time. Whilst the cork was at the end of its life, I managed to remove it more or less in one piece with the aid of a screwpull-type corkscrew, some deft handiwork and a bit of luck. The wine was decanted and sieved, had vigorous very young colour and hardly any sediment, looking nothing like the 43-year old veteran that it was. The nose was full of rich red berry fruit, hints of grassy mint and vigour, whilst the palate was smooth, rich, clean and seductive, still young and with decent, if not excessive, length. Well, I say! I had expected a wine lacking in fruit, harder and nearing the end of its days but this, though possibly better a few years ago, has years ahead of it...  wow! A classic, classy claret to stir the old loins, a perfect drink to enjoy - and a pleasant surprise to boot - and, though fine Bordeaux wines can never move me in the way that fine Burgundy does, this was that often talked about but rarely encountered rarity, textbook fine claret.

That, dear friends, is the beauty of wine and of wine appreciation. Wine is a living thing, capable of great disappointments but even greater thrills, surprises and real pleasure. It is a life-enhancer, a bonus, something that can make our life better if halfway understood, is properly appreciated and even loved. Yes, fine wine is also a commercial product, but one that is alive and made with affection and dedication rarely found elsewhere.

No wonder the ancient Greeks had a god of wine (Dionysos) I don't know of a product more deserving.