12 bottles per lot
Details
Château Latour--Vintage 1961
Pauillac, 1er cru classé
Four capsules corroded. Bin-soiled labels, slightly damaged at edges. Lichine slip labels. Levels: one into neck, four top, one upper, one mid/upper, three mid, one mid/low and one low-shoulder
Tasting Note: Immensely impressive, beautifully balanced but, not surprisingly, 'still severe' when first tasted in the autumn of 1968. Its great depth of colour, concentrated magnificence, richness and length noted throughout the 1970s - but slow to evolve. On two occasions in the 1980s, I gave it 6 stars, 4 for its impressiveness, 2 for future splendour. Of the eight recent notes, its depth of colour is the first thing one notices, and its nose, rather like a Lafite's, is a bit slow to open up. Surprisingly sweet too yet a very tannic finish (at Aschau in 1994). In 1997, a corky, woody bottle at a Saintsbury Club dinner. It was helped along by the cheese soufflé. At the La Réserve tasting, despite its extraordinary sweet, nose-filling bouquet, a mammoth wine, all the component parts excessively represented. Most recently, a superb bottle at Josh Latner's dinner. Last tasted Jan 2000 ****(**). Another half century of life. M.B.
12 bottles per lot
Pauillac, 1er cru classé
Four capsules corroded. Bin-soiled labels, slightly damaged at edges. Lichine slip labels. Levels: one into neck, four top, one upper, one mid/upper, three mid, one mid/low and one low-shoulder
Tasting Note: Immensely impressive, beautifully balanced but, not surprisingly, 'still severe' when first tasted in the autumn of 1968. Its great depth of colour, concentrated magnificence, richness and length noted throughout the 1970s - but slow to evolve. On two occasions in the 1980s, I gave it 6 stars, 4 for its impressiveness, 2 for future splendour. Of the eight recent notes, its depth of colour is the first thing one notices, and its nose, rather like a Lafite's, is a bit slow to open up. Surprisingly sweet too yet a very tannic finish (at Aschau in 1994). In 1997, a corky, woody bottle at a Saintsbury Club dinner. It was helped along by the cheese soufflé. At the La Réserve tasting, despite its extraordinary sweet, nose-filling bouquet, a mammoth wine, all the component parts excessively represented. Most recently, a superb bottle at Josh Latner's dinner. Last tasted Jan 2000 ****(**). Another half century of life. M.B.
12 bottles per lot
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