Tonight, Jean and I -- in conjunction with Dale and Betsy -- decided to
open the first bottle of a recent auction purchase split between Dale
and myself. To add some extra fun, we decided to open the same bottle
the same night to compare notes. Jean and I opened ours 15 minutes
before a dinner of roast (Amish) chicken, roasted fingerling potatoes
and sautéed asparagus with morels (the asparagus was always followed by
chicken or potato prior to any wine). What follows are my notes, made
without consultation of Dale's own notes:

1970 Ducru-Beaucaillou
fill: top shoulder
color: orange at the rim, going to dark garnet at the center
nose: dark fruit, pencil lead, a hint of violets, later taking on a more
herbal quality
palate: medium body, vibrant dark fruit, good acidity, soft tannins
remaining

Incredibly primary for a 38-year old Bordeaux, it seemed to emphasize
the flavors of Cabernet Sauvignon. Lovely, but not tremendously
complex, this wine was shockingly young-seeming and in great shape. A
definite 4 on the Hoare food/wine matching scale.

One minor point of contention emerged about 3/4 way through this bottle:
I felt that it had begun to smell of low-level cork taint, but Jean (who
claims to be as sensitive as me to TCA) vehemently denied that. Who knows?

Mark Lipton

On May 12, 9:24 pm, Mark Lipton wrote:
Tonight, Jean and I -- in conjunction with Dale and Betsy -- decided to
open the first bottle of a recent auction purchase split between Dale
and myself. To add some extra fun, we decided to open the same bottle
the same night to compare notes. Jean and I opened ours 15 minutes
before a dinner of roast (Amish) chicken, roasted fingerling potatoes
and sautéed asparagus with morels (the asparagus was always followed by
chicken or potato prior to any wine). What follows are my notes, made
without consultation of Dale's own notes:

1970 Ducru-Beaucaillou
fill: top shoulder
color: orange at the rim, going to dark garnet at the center
nose: dark fruit, pencil lead, a hint of violets, later taking on a more
herbal quality
palate: medium body, vibrant dark fruit, good acidity, soft tannins
remaining

Incredibly primary for a 38-year old Bordeaux, it seemed to emphasize
the flavors of Cabernet Sauvignon. Lovely, but not tremendously
complex, this wine was shockingly young-seeming and in great shape. A
definite 4 on the Hoare food/wine matching scale.

One minor point of contention emerged about 3/4 way through this bottle:
I felt that it had begun to smell of low-level cork taint, but Jean (who
claims to be as sensitive as me to TCA) vehemently denied that. Who knows?

I bought 6 bottles of the 1970 Ducru shortly after it was released and
still have 3. It has held up much better than many of the 70s. It has
been a while since I opened a bottle, but the last time it was holding
very well and I thought that there was no hurry to drink the remaining
bottles. I still have one bottle of the 61 Ducru. I would guess it is
still holding well. The 61 is considerably more complex and rich than
the 70. The 62 was very good and was often overlooked since many
people were buying 59s and 61s instead. At one time you could get the
62 at a very reasonable price compared to the 61, and the 62 was not
that far behind the 61 in quality.