1924 and 1926 Lafite

31 May 2012: A few weeks ago, we decided to pull the corks of a couple of old Lafite bottles, which had lost their labels (and in today's wine market, probably most of their value!) over the years.  Fortunately for us, they had been properly identified so that we still knew what they were!!  We invited a few good friends to share these bottles with us. Charles said (a couple of days ago) that it was rather unfair of us to open these bottles without warning when he was expecting a casual Sunday supper! Wouldn't life be a little dull if we had looked for too many excuses??!!

We started the evening with a 1979 Ampeau Meursault Perrières.  It revealed a golden robe, with a gloriously ripe and mature bouquet of honey, hazelnuts, fig, guava, building up to spicy notes of liquorice making a marvellously layered complex nose.   We were totally in awe of the agelessly fresh acidity, combined with the layered complexities,  giving a gorgeously lengthy finish.  Superb stuff and great demonstration of the ageability that Chardonnay could be capable of!



Corks from the 24 and 26 Lafite Bottles

After this glorious start, we were well-prepped for the long awaited pair of 1924 and 1926 Lafite.  A very good sign that both corks were pulled with a very promising 'plop' and revealed a very robust form.  And the wines?  The 1924 was unquestionably the 'better-kept' of the two old ladies.  We were all in awe of the rather fruitful character at this grand age - black  and blue fruit, cherries and berries, lifted by some peppery and smokey/earthy notes.  Very well held together in a firm but elegant frame, with lovely acidity and fully-integrated soft tannin.  Though not terribly concentrated, the underlying material was certainly of high quality and ageworthy.  Nice long length.  Certainly drinking very well now at peak........and could continue to give pleasure for a few more years if well-stored!  17/20     

As for the younger sister, unfortunately time hadn't been so kind and the bouquet was decidedly tertiary but still aromatically rather enticing, with leather, dark chocolate, earthy, tobacco, underbrush and musky notes.  Rather bland and hollow mid-palate, which didn't really improve over the course of the dinner, followed by short length and a drying finish.  Well past drinking at its best......and not very exciting.  15/20 

For those of you who have enjoyed a few old bottles, you will appreciate how quickly these wines disappeared!  We had prepared a bottle of 1952 Pétrus as follow-up.  This demonstrated great mature Pomerol notes of prunes, mocha, chocolate and violet.  Lovely weight in a mid-sized frame, still showing great acidity.  Drinking very well at peak now, with a lengthy finish.  17.5/20

Great wines generally leave you speechless.  These were by no means great wines from great vintages, but it was simply mindblowing how gracefully they had aged, in some cases still retaining charming remnants of their more youthful and vigorous selves.