Bordeaux 2002

My wife and I were invited to a good friend's home recently. He always serves up good wine and because his wife is French it is always good french wine. True to form a decanter of red wine appeared on the table. One sniff confirmed that it was Bordeaux red. When we tasted the wine, there was a hint of bitterness from the tannins which had not yet softened and there was also a complex array of fruit flavours hidden in there somewhere. The wine tasted of cloves and vanilla from the oak.

My host kept us guessing for a while as we were not able to identify the wine any further than it was exceptionally good wine from Bordeaux.

Our host revealed that it was from Paulliac and it turned out to be Chateau Pichon-Longueville 2002. As he was a very good friend, I pointed out that it was far too young to be drunk and even though he had decanted the wine and let it breathe, the tannins had not softened sufficiently and the fruit character of the wine was still hidden. I expect that this wine will age well over the next decade and will develop into a great wine to reveal the full character of a "deuxieme cru" Paulliac. It is a shame that he had not bought a second bottle to keep for another decade or so, but this wine is very expensive.

Perhaps my friend has spent too long in France. I make many family visits to France and find that most of my relations drink their wine too early. Few French people seem to have the patience to let their wines develop. One exception was my father-in-law; he kept relatively modest wines in his cellar for many years before drinking and they all improved with age. I spent many a happy hour with him tasting some delightful wine from Burgundy and Bordeaux. He even kept some of the New World wines that I brought over from England as a comparison.

When he passed away we raided his cellar to drink the good wine that he had kept for all those years. He left a true legacy and even my French relations admired his patience.