1988 Chateau Haut Brion and 1970 Chateau Montrose tasting

This article is about  wines that is nearly impossible to acquire in Vancouver. But I have to write about it since it was a rare experience. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a tasting of a bottle of 1988 Chateau Haut Brion (Bordeaux first growth, WS 96 points) and

1970 Chateau Montrose St.

Estephe (Bordeaux second growth, WS 87 points) recently.

The host opened the bottle of Chateau Haut Brion one hour before the tasting and left it in the bottle. When we arrived, he poured it into some nice gold-rim goblets. Out of politeness I tasted it and found it to be very light and could not describe the nose since I could not smell anything. I then decided that such a nice wine should not be wasted and I offered to go to my car trunk to bring out my Eisch Breathable Bordeaux glasses. (I would never use breathable glasses on such nice quality wine if it was properly decanted). The nose with a berry hint became much more noticeable ten minutes later. I asked the guests to leave it in the breathable glasses for a bit more time.

The host then proceeded to try to pour the second wine which was the Chateau Montrose. Unfortunately he tried to open it, before I arrived, with a rabbit ear type opener and the cork fractured three quarters of the way down. I inspected the portion of the cork that was removed and found the wine stain all the way to the top, indicating that it would soak through in a very short time. So I breathed a sign of relief. I then brought in my corkscrews, filter, funnel and decanter from my car trunk (yes this was the second trip to the trunk) and tried to remove the rest of the cork with a Teflon coated corkscrew. The cork was so fragile that nothing could be pulled up. So I pushed the remaining cork down into the bottle and poured the wine slowly through a filter and decanting funnel. I let it sit in a proper decanter for half and hour before tasting it. The color was definitely more brown than the Haut Brion (of course it is 18 years older) and the nose was faint to begin with. It still had the heavy oak smell that reminded my wife of something she had before (the famous 1990 Chateau Montrose).

After enjoying some very nice Chinese food served by the host, we began to taste both wines slowly. The Montrose came around after an hour and had a fruity taste. Wine Spectator rated it at 87 points and indicated that it was starting to dry out. I found that it was drinking better than that rating and not drying out at all. However, it started to fade somewhat after about two hours and we quickly drank it up. Then we proceeded to the remaining Haut Brion and it was very smooth and balanced. What an evening of surprises and enjoyment!!