Battle of 1959 Pomerols: Petrus and Lafleur

12 Feb 2011: A few days ago, we were generously treated by a good friend to dinner at Lung King Heen (the 3 Michelin-star Chinese restaurant) at the Four Seasons Hotel,  HK.  Each of us brought a bottle of old Pomerol. Lung King Heen proved to be a fine venue to enjoy 2 very special bottles: 1959 Château Lafleur and 1959 Château Pétrus: same vintage, same commune.  (The sommelier did a very fine job handling these 2 old bottles, even though he pretended to be rather nervous about them.)  The levels of the two wine were within a millimetre or two of each other but the results of the tasting seemed to have put them much further apart than the short distance within a commune!  The colours were quite similar, both showing a medium intensity of garnet. 

The 1959 Pétrus instantly delighted us with a very gratifyingly perfumed bouquet of plum, blueberry, leather, cigar box, spicy and mocha....gradually developing into gamey/animal notes, with a caramelised edge.  Rather sweet note on entry, a lusciously smooth and rich mouthfeel accompanying the full-bodied texture.  A long finish.  It was nonetheless a gorgeously heady drop but seemed to be a little lacking in energy and vigour, drinking just past the plateau perhaps?  Drink within 3 - 5 years for best enjoyment.  17/20 

The 1959 Lafleur was disappointing.  Herbaceous, blueberry, violet, leather, smokey and stoney.  Various nuances of caramel and metallic taints on the nose.  The palate was ungenerous and rather mean, compared to the lush silky texture of the Pétrus.  Some redeeming features on the nose giving it some claim to pedigree, but not a memorable experience otherwise.  Drink up if you still have a few bottles!  14.5/20

We had started the evening with a 1995 Meursault-Charmes, Roulot, which tasted amazingly fresh and invigorating, quite a nice surprise when one almost invariably expects the worst from white burgundies with some age. Citrus, mineral, blossom, white peach, honey, hazelnut and spice on the nose.  The palate is smooth and nicely rounded, extremely harmonious and well-structured. The sleek and clean finish lasted almost a couple of minutes.  Drinking absolutely at peak now....a marvellous wine to be enjoyed now and over next 8 - 10 years. (I had saved a few drops to try again at the end of the meal and it still tasted remarkably fresh.) 18/20

The crabmeat baked in its shell went very well with the Roulot wine.....there was just enough acidity from the wine to balance the richness of the crabmeat.  Given the old Pomerol theme, our host had chosen some gamey items to go with it.....Peking duck with delightfully crispy skin which was most professionally served in 2 courses (with plenty of second helpings of each course, as the duck was only shared by 3 people) and roast pigeon, which was rather tasty - both dishes worked amazingly well with the old Pomerol.  The Wuxi style pork at the end was less well prepared than I remembered.....the best version came individually served in mini-casseroles.  A final dish of stir fried long beans was all we needed to round off this most indulgent meal. 

A very interesting comparison of 2 wines from the same commune and same vintage.....had they been so different from Day 1?  I would love to find out.......(By the way, one bottle had come from a US source and the other from a UK source.)