I acquired a nice collection of wines last year and I had been saving this bottle and another, 1989 Bandol, for my 60th birthday when I discovered this bottle was leaking around the cork. Pulling it from the rack and placing the bottle on the bar, the cork dropped into the bottle. Immediately, l text a friend and informed him of my delimma and urged him to rush over so that we could rescue the contents. He arrived post-haste and l poured glasses for him, myself, and my wife. We conversed about the wine and bottle as it breathed in the glass, as suggested by a fellow poster on this forum, before partaking of the richness contained within the glass.
Nosing the dark, almost port-like liquid, the very first thing one noticed was the aroma of dirt. Not an unpleasant swamp this, no, it was a freshly tilled field of deep loam, slightly mineral, but not off puttingly so, copper, perhaps?
The mouth feel was buttery, creamy, much like a good bourbon, one of the old school Wilderness Trail Family Selects, before they sold out, and left a pleasant sheen on the tongue.
The taste. The first thing l noticed was the expensive vanilla which erupted as I sipped. it was followed by currant and a rich strawberry tart, with a tad of sugar sprinkles atop, faint citrus followed, and as it lay on the tongue, there was a slight prune that dried in the corners reminiscent of a nice Merlot. (There will be arguments about Merlot, you are wrong; there are good Merlots.) The butteriness remained as the wash of current and fruit followed.
All of these lingered in the finish, coating the mouth with a dark, fruit sweetness which was neither distracting nor cloying. The dryness at the corners of the mouth simply urge one to delve back in for another round of exploration.
Because of the fun we had with this bottle over two days of sipping and tasting, I'm going to give the 1993 Bandol a 10/10. We had been waiting to open this and the fates decided it was time. it was a fantastic and unexpected experience to get to know this bottle on a random Tuesday afternoon.
by Frequent-Art-9612