Back in July, I presented Jean with a 50th birthday present of 3 bottles
of the '61 Beychevelle, a birthyear wine for her. Tonight, for no
particular reason except the onset of cooler Fall temperatures, she
decided to open one with a spontaneously made paella (this continues our
tradition of serving wildly inappropriate wines with paella).

1961 Chateau Beychevelle St. Julien
nose: leather, tobacco leaf and underneath a deep reservoir of plummy fruit
palate: rich, smooth tannins, beautiful balance

John Gilman has opined in his publication A View From the Cellar that
this wine has almost 30 more years of drinking ahead of it. It
certainly has enough primary character and balance to suggest that it
can many more years, but I doubt that our cache will live to see 2014,
let alone 2040.

Mark Lipton