Birthyear wine for a dear friend.
Burgess has this magical ability to age seemingly forever and still carry its distinctive style.
Was lucky enough to find this bottle in the wild and saved it for just this occasion.
Stood up well ahead of time to let the sediment settle.
Cork came out relatively clean, not super saturated. Fill level on this bottle was great too, bottom of the neck.
Poured a splash and it was still a little tight and needed to wake up after its fifty year slumber.
So we decanted it and then enjoyed over about an hour.
This actually evolved nicely over the course of dinner.
Dark plum, plum skins, leather, cedar, tobacco, dried blueberry notes. Maybe some slight cocoa and cinnamon as well.
This still has nice acidity to work with, tannins feel fully settled at this point.
I have a feeling this wine can continue to age very nicely!
After recently trying this and the 1986 Burgess, I'm convinced that I should just buy any vintage Burgess I find, because they're getting increasingly hard to find!
Funny enough, the sticker on the front says $11.99. How I wish that was still the case!
93 points.
by rnjbond