Last Friday night a customer came in and sat at the bar. As we began chatting about wines, he wanted to know if I had some older vintage wines, which lead me to showing him my cellar. We tasted several bottles of wine.
The first bottle we opened was a 1987 Grace Family Cabernet. It was past its prime, but it still had very nice plum, cherry and currant fruit flavor with cedar. It tasted a bit earthy with some tobacco and leather, with the nose having a smell of lead pencils. Overall it was great experience to taste a wine that was almost 23 yrs old.
We then opened a 1991 Harlan that didn’t show any age at all. It had a massive black fruit which was remarkably rich and full bodied with very firm tannins. I felt this Harlan could still age another 10 to 20 years with ease.
The third bottle was a 1989 Chateau Baron Piton Longue Ville which was an amazing and elegant wine. It was very silky with soft tannins, showing rich cedar, current, black cherry and cassis. I almost opened another Piton.
The last bottle of wine we opened was a 1992 Shafer Hillside Select. It showed layers of ripe current, cherry, chocolate spice, anise and vanilla flavors. This wine was very rich and velvety, with very long finish. The last bottle I tasted was 1996, and it was amazing. I remember the first bottle I ever had was 1984. I feel Shafer HS extremely underrated.
Let me know if you’re drinking any interesting Wines. I’d love to hear from you.
Korean Wino Lee
