Chateau Malescasse, Haut-Médoc, 1990

Chateau Malescasse, Haut-Médoc, 1990

It's all rather melancholy. It's raining outside, autumn is coming on, and there's only one antidote against heaviness of heart that never fails: 1990 Bordeaux. Chateau Malescasse is said to be one of the very dependable producers of the Haut-Médoc, and in a more lucid moment, I secured this bottle on eBay. And when I woke up this morning with the rain lashing against the windows, I knew it : Tonight is its night.

I'm surprised by the depth of the colour to begin with: Only on the very edges can you see the wine turning into the lighter brick red that you would expect from a 21-year-old red. This is followed by a warm and warming smell of ripe raspberries, prunes, currants, furniture polish and freshly paved tarmac. Surprisingly young-seeming on the palate, meaty, typical cassis fruit with baked berry notes, tar again, great tannic grip, and a hint of pine needles - what can I say? Simply a good bottle of Bordeaux, gracefully aged and a pleasure, though short of a revelation, to drink. It's been a while since we've had music on this blog, and I want to pay tribute to the late great folk musician Bert Jansch who died two days ago. Here he is, with his magisterial "Black Water Side".

So it's all rather melancholy: Bert Jansch is gone, it's raining outside, autumn is coming on, and I urgently need to stack up on 1990 Bordeaux.

Comments

Submitted by Alex Sunday, 09/10/2011

So true that now comes the time of red wines! And there are plenty of good and surprisingly affordable aged Bordeaux on the market. And if you don't want to look too far in the past. A few of the 2000 and 2005 second wines should do it. Had a 2005 Connétable de Talbot the other day which was just fabulous out of the bottle - it trades at around 30 Eur! Have a good sunday! Alex

Submitted by torsten Tuesday, 11/10/2011

In reply to by Alex

It is with some envy that I watch you guys being able to source aged wines on eBay for acceptable prices - here in the UK you cannot sell wines on eBay. In fact, no private person can sell wine, you need to have a license and pay duties and taxes. So I will just have to read both your tasting notes with much happiness for you and some envy for me. Luckily, I have a few red wines here to share those feelings with!