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Wines with Age

Wines with Age

Wines with Age

If you spend even a single day talking to an experienced wine enthusiast, the topic of vintages will come up. Every producer will create a slightly different mixture each year because the conditions change. Completely unpredictable weather scenarios can affect the yearly grape harvest and alter the taste and texture of the wine. As a result, every brand comes with recommended years or best vintages. In a way, it takes a miracle to create the best possible wine because many factors have to align. Sampling a vintage gives you an insight into the weather patterns and other natural conditions of that given year – it’s like receiving visions of the past, and can hold great sentimental value if the year is otherwise important to you.

Not every wine is made to last a century, which means you have to search very carefully. A truly great wine stands out instantly, as it’s complex and subtle enough to rival the most intricate paintings and classical compositions. The flavors develop and evolve over time, creating a colorful collage of scents that perfume your mouth and spirit, leaving an emotional, rich aftertaste. It becomes incredibly hard to stop at one glass, believe us.

Being able to pick out wines is a skill that requires years to fully develop, much like the wines themselves. Acidic wines, ones with residual sugar, and precisely tuned alcohol levels tend to mature much better than their ordinary counterparts. Good things come to those who wait, and there is no better example than finely-aged wine. Let us guide you through some choice picks, wines that will give your collection more longevity, so that you may one day tell stories to your children about life-defining moments that sprouted from these fertile elixirs.
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1999 cheval blanc Bordeaux Red
1999 Cheval Blanc Bordeaux Red

The complex, explosively fragrant 1999 Cheval Blanc is a blend of 59% Merlot and 41% Cabernet Franc. It is already showing well, which is a good sign for a wine that traditionally is reserved early in life, but puts on weight and richness in the bottle. Stylistically, this wine is probably cut from the same mold as vintages such as 1985, 1966, and 1962. The color is a dense ruby with purple nuances. Once past the blockbuster bouquet of menthol, leather, black fruits, licorice, and mocha, the wine reveals medium body, extraordinary elegance, purity, and sweet, harmonious flavors with no hard edges. This is a seamless beauty of finesse, charm, and concentration. The 1999 is an exciting Cheval Blanc to drink relatively young. Anticipated maturity: 2006-2022.Robert Parker | 93 RP61% merlot and 39% cabernet franc): Good full ruby. Crystallized blackcurrant, licorice, cedar and menthol on the nose, complicated by cocoa and smoky minerals. Round and ripe but not thick or heavy on the palate, featuring tangy flavors of black cherry, licorice, graphite and spices. At once creamy and juicy, with good breadth and fine tannins. Over the years, I have had the unique opportunity and privilege (for which I am grateful to both Lurton and Van Leeuwen) to taste the single lots of pure cabernet franc and merlot from this and other vintages (the estate sets aside a small number of such bottles every vintage for purposes of study and analysis), and it’s an amazingly instructive exercise. Though the final blend is better than the single lots, the fact that the estate’s second wine, Le Petit Cheval, was 61% cabernet franc (with 2% malbec!) in 1999 and that it is a pretty amazing wine leads me to question the wisdom of having included so much merlot in the final assemblage of the 1999 Cheval Blanc. (Note that the percentages of the final blend I report are those given me by Van Leeuwen, while some other references have listed the 1999 blend at 59% merlot and 41% cabernet franc.) The vintage was a hot one, with higher than average temperatures in almost every month of the growth cycle, leading to an early harvest in mid-September (whereas the annual average is closer to September 20-25).Vinous Media | 92 VMLove the chocolate mousse and berry aromas here. This is opulent, yet reserved, and beautiful. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a delicious finish. Offering so much finesse and beauty, this is a polished and gorgeous Cheval.—’89/’99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

93
RP
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