Visually this wine displays a shiny medium garnet color. On the nose at first a bit dusty. The main sensations are of old, slightly burned wood and tea leaves. With time it shows a tiny bit of complexity.
In the mouth very fresh and elegant. At first rather light, with lean tannins: more Burgundy than Bordeaux in character. With some time in the glass it shows its Pauillac origin, with the tannins that increase their grip; to then fade away. The aftertaste is discreet, but last for a reasonable time.
Prior to the French Revolution, the estate of Château Clerc Milon was part of the vast property of the seigneury of Lafite. The Château was acquired in 1970, at a time when it was neglected, by Baron Philippe de Rothschild, who restored it to its status of a Classified Growth.
What strikes me most about this wine is the liveliness of its color after 40 years. A characteristic that I also noticed in a bottle of a 48 years old Château Cheval Blanc 1967 I tasted in 2015.
We often wonder what is so special about a 1855 Classified Growth Bordeaux. Sometime we expect an incredible experience drinking them, forgetting that at the end any bottle of wine is 1 kg of grapes, fermented and turned into an alcoholic juice.
To me, the really amazing aspect that set these wines apart from the rest of the crowd and makes theM unique is the fact that even after 40-50 years they are still highly enjoyable. I find their ability to age well and to reach this kind of maturity, even in a not very favourable vintage, very fascinating.
I wonder if the Bordeaux wines produced nowadays, which tend to be made to be enjoyable sooner, will be able to last this long, especially the ones produced in mediocre vintages, as it has been the case in 1979. A vintage that yielded an abundant crop of poorly ripened grapes, causing many of the wines to be diluted. A vintage not considered worth cellaring.
To put the date in prospective, remember that 1979 was the year China instituted the one child policy, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime minister in the UK and Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran, putting an end to a tradition of winemaking that stretched back centuries, if not thousands of years. In fact, in the late ‘60s jars dating back some 7000 years ago were found in Persia and provide the first scientific proof of the ancient tradition of Iranian wine production.
In 1979 The Wine Advocate, first published the year before, was still in its infancy and Robert Parker with his 50-100 point scale didn’t have any influence on the wine world yet.
A final curiosity: no alcohol content is displayed on the label of this bottle, the reason being that traditionally the alcohol level was controlled by the Appellation (in Bordeaux 10%-13%) and didn’t need to be shown on the label.
This bottle was offered to me by a friend that came to my home for dinner. In Switzerland it is to be found for 90 CHF.
Country: France
Region: Bordeaux
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot
Type: Red
Vintage: 1979
Producer: Château Clerc Milon
Price range: Extra (50-100 US$)
Pascal’s Enjoyment Index: 4/5