This is another wine review of the ‘Bat’s Cave Tasting Series‘: wines that I taste and describe a little more lightly than the usual and very comprehensive Social Vignerons reviews.
More lightly in length, but just as seriously in the tasting approach and the authenticity in my opinion on the wine that is given.
Score: 88/100
AOC Bordeaux Superieur is a respectable appellation of the Bordeaux wine region area of France.
Yet, it’s far from being the best appellation in the area, such as the super-famous village zones like Saint-Emilion, Pauillac or Margaux.
So we’re talking here of a modest wine, in a fanstatic vintage acknowledged as one of the best in the 20th Century, aged for 27 years for no obvious reasons. These humble wine are not quite meant to be aged for so long.
There actually probably is fewer bottles of this 1989 Monopole Alfred Rothschild Bordeaux Superieur wine still alive (not drunk) in this world, than there is of any first growth Grand Cru Classe of Bordeaux.
If only for this, this is definitely worth a taste, for the sake of the experience, and a of absolute rarity!
I just happened to trip on it in a family cellar. So here we are trying it!
So is this 1989 Monopole Alfred Rothschild Bordeaux Superieur still going to be any good?
The Answer is in the tasting notes:
The color of the wine seems quite light for a Bordeaux. You can see through it just like through an old Burgundy Pinot Noir which is not common for the area. It’s tawny, a fair bit towards the brick color spectrum.
The smell is surprisingly rich and spicy: plenty of Christmas pudding scents. Some fruit remains in here too, materialized by your senses primarily in the form of cherry liqueur aromas.
The palate is surprising in many ways…
Flavors are those of an evolved wine that has still kept its composure. It’s quite powerfull, loads of spices and also wood and fruit characters.
Yet, when you you put it in your mouth and drink it, it feels a little like water, watery and somehow diluted.
Overall
An excellent piece of history of a wine, that demonstrates how at nearly the humblest level, Bordeaux wine in excellent vintages can actually age for many decades keeping its composure and developping a unique spectrum of flavors nowhere else to be found.
You probably won’t find this wine in such an advanced vintage anywhere in any retail or shop.
Yet, this blog post should keep and make you aware that if you come accross anywhere near any 1989 Bordeaux wine kept in reasonably-good conditions, if you love and are curious about wine, it is worth a sip and a try.
Cheers
JM 🙂
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