In article >, "John Taverner"
> writes:

>Question for you experts. I believe that old claret was made for a long
>life, stalks and all. Modern claret, as above, made for youthful consumption
>and then dies.
>Do you agree??

Well, I agree partially with you (and Bill).I have trouble envisioning a lot of
modern Bordeaux, especially the "Parkerized" very-low-acid types, going the
long haul.
That being said, all of this is vintage-dependent. The wines you cite, a '59 &
a '61, are from legendary vintages. Try to find a '60 Bordeaux that's even
drinkable. There are plenty of wines in recent vintages ('89, '90, '95, '96
left, '98 right, '00) with the guts for the long-haul, IMHO. The difference is
probably most apparent in the Cru B. level wines- I doubt any recent Ch.
Glorias are going to go 30 years (I think Bill posted on a '70 or '75 Gloria).
But I bet the '00 will be fine in 15, and that's enough for me.

Sorry to hear the '86 Potensac is so bad. The crapshoot with '86s was always
whether the fruit could outlast the tannins, this one clearly couldn't. The '82
Potensac is actually still quite tasty. Your '96 Potensac showed lighter than
the bottles I've had, I thought it a nice balanced claret for drinking now and
over next 5 years (good deal - still available sometimes around $16US, too).

Nice notes, appreciate it!
Dale

Dale Williams
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