Blogging about eating or drinking some really exquisite, rare treat always feels funny to me. Mostly, I like to do it for the sake of aiding my memory, generally enfeebled by bourbon-pickled brain cells. And I like reading other people’s tasting notes too. But conversely, it feels a bit like bragging, which kind of sucks.

Despite that, I just had to write last night’s tasting notes down, both for posterity’s sake and for sharing. It’s a rare opportunity (for me, anyhow) to sit down with three good friends and drink five bottles of aged Bordeaux in great condition. Such an occasion requires some documenting, even if as the writer I’m the only one who ever bothers to read it.

We gathered in a cleaned out (sort of), empty cinder block building in Detroit, four of us with five wines, a small folding table, and a few chairs.

1979 Haut-Bages Liberal (Paulliac)
There are sensations, some hard to describe, unique to older wines. Initially quite musty, damp, and funky, the aromatics on this wine gave way to a lot more lively fruit. From the onset, it tasted fresh and alive with some grippy tannin in the finish; but as the evening wore on and we re-visited the wine two more times, light, fleshy fruit flavors dominated with a really bright, youthful acidity. Delightful stuff.

1978 Prieure-Lichine (Margaux)
Aromatically challenged to start, this might have evolved the most over the course of the evening. Early on, there was just a bit of soft fruit on the nose. Eventually, it became noticeably more menacing (in an exciting way) with darker, woodier notes. Tasted perfectly fine from the get go, albeit with a bit of a vegetal finish, but it got considerably more nuanced, meaty, and leathery as the evening wore on with a much more focused, almost minty quality at the end of each sip.

1981 Palmer (Margaux)
Steve commented during our first glass of this that he thought 1981 was a bit underrated, and based on our limited evidence, I think we all agreed. There was a big, distinctive cabernet sauvignon nose with just a bit of a gnarly, rustic edge to it. Immediately captivating. Definitely the weightiest, fullest, richest of our three oldest wines. Quite tannic but still fruity, acidic, and ripe. Killer wine worthy of the venerable name (and totally bad ass label).

1998 Gruaud Larose (St. Julien)
Disclaimer: I love this producer. It’s rustic, edgy, and funky, and I think it’s magnificent. I’ve had the good fortune of tasting some great vintages of this wine, and it’s never disappointed me. This was no exception. Dense and still young, though not so wound up as to seem premature to have opened it. As the evening wore on, the aroma showed more juicy, grapey, dark fruit qualities and finished with a sharp, savory characteristic.

1996 Leoville-Poyferré (St. Julien)
In a word, this was INTENSE. Still too young. All coiled up and restrained, just about ready to explode. This is on its way up to a glorious place. Toasty, woody aromatics. Soft tannins. Dark fruit and lively finish but still reserved. This just envelopes one’s entire palate and finishes with a subtle stony edge. It’s a big wine, but it was still quite elegant. Great drinking now, even better later.

I’d discussed with Steve in the past how it seems like there are just certain nights when everything clicks. This was one of those nights: Five older wines, each one alive and entirely spot on. We should have hit the casinos afterwards. (But instead we had beer, a decision with which I have no argument.)

Cellared wines are an entirely different beast from what’s typically available in the store, and despite the pretentiousness one could quite easily read into the cost and/or effort involved in drinking aged wines, anyone who were to spend time with bottles like these would comprehend and possibly participate in the obsession. A perfect night.

No, these were older wines.

Properly stored, old wine offers a unique and wonderful experience.  And while writing about that wonderful experience on a blog is inherently self-indulgent – outright braggotry, really – it’s also a chance to explore one of those aspects of wine that can be intimidating and seem out of reach.   Perhaps more importantly, it’s an opportunity to provide some much-needed context for the mythos and aura of inscrutability that seems to surround cellared wines.

Among all the supermarket wines that have immense popularity among broad audiences and among many of the lighter, so-called natural wines that have justifiably obtained a cult-like status with many aficionados, one thing that’s often missing is the potential for aging – that is, an intense structure of tightly coiled flavors that can unfurl into unparalleled elegance over time.

So when our good friends Steve and Robin invited a number of us over to open some cellared bottles (mostly Steve’s), neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night could have deterred us from that enjoyment.

The line up, in the order we tasted them:

1999 Drouhin – Volnay, 1er Cru, Clos des Chenes
You know that your day is off to a good start when you’ve “warmed up” on Farnum Hill hard cider and your first act is a burgundy with ten years of age on it. Notably floral on the nose with some hints of berry. Nicely structured with surprising tannin for such a lightly colored wine.

1985 Breton – Bourgeil, Les Perrieres
While not the most electrifying wine of the night, this cabernet franc from the Loire Valley proves to be quite illustrative of the concept of what happens to nicely structured, well made wine as it ages.  Many younger bottles of this wine are delicious but are so heavy with astringency from tannins and with flavors of tar that it can be a chore for newcomers to cab franc to enjoy it.  Over time, though, this wine hasn’t lost any of its oomph, but the tannins have relaxed a bit.  There’s a spicy, poignant quality to the finish and a lot of very bright fruit flavors up front.  This would have tasted much different in 1988 than it does today.  I’d guess it would have been more like a knife on the palate – hard and sharp – than so broad and flavorful.  Delicious either way but truly elegant later in life.

1986 Chateau Talbot – St. Julien
Great Lakes roastmaster James Cadariu and his finely honed olfactory senses immediately noticed that “this wine smells like poop. But,” as he went on to explain, “in a good way.” It definitely begins with a very dirty, very barnyard, very fecal nose.  Brettanomyces, perhaps?  In terms of flavor, however, any hint of that flaw is gone. Instead, it’s elegant and layered with chocolatey black fruit and smoke. Nicely balanced with acidity.  There’s still some tannic structure, but a lot of it has faded to let that delicate fruit flavor through.

2001 Voge – Cornas, Vielles Vignes
Pours with just the slightest purple hue, and the aromatics are quite expressive. Berries and flowers hint at what’s to come: While there’s still plenty of tannin and some pepper, it’s fundamentally a feminine and pretty wine.

1988 Fattoria dei Barbi – Brunello di Montalcino
Wines can sit too long, of course. While they can develop complexity, the various reactions taking place inside the bottle can also free up sugars or create off flavors or aromas. I’m not precisely sure what happened to this Brunello, but it tasted like brown sugar and had a very syrupy mouthfeel despite its age. It had a funny, herbal nose, and while it was drinkable, the only descriptor I can come up with is “strange.” This certainly illustrates two of the common myths with cellaring wine – that any red wine will get better with age and that wines can age indefinitely. It’s a living thing that evolves in the bottle. The number of years of age matter, but so does the original juice put into the bottle, itself a product of climate, technique, and the blend of grapes. Wines have a peak, and this wine was looking at its peak in the rear view mirror.

1970 Cappellano – Barolo, Serralunga d’Alba
I might be biased since I brought this to the party, but this was one of my favorite wines of the night. Aromatically complex, this wasn’t nearly so fecal as the 86 Ch. Talbot, but it definitely carried a funk to it that smelled to me like decomposing grass clippings and some funky cheese. That lessened as the wine opened up, but some element of that aroma was always there. On the palate, though, it was remarkably bright with some pleasant acid and lots of tannic structure left. While it was bone dry, there was still enough fruit to keep it in balance. A very elegant but powerful, masculine set of flavors. Surprisingly, while this was expectedly light and transparent, it was also very much reddish in color. Older red wines tend to develop a brick-ish brown color over time.

1995 Vieux de Telegraphe – La Crau, Chateauneuf de Pape
Another standout in an evening full of them. This is arguably the most pleasing wine of the night aromatically speaking, still showing quite a bit of fruit and pleasant herbal qualities in the nose – fresh coffee, pepper, and just a bit of funk compared to some of the much older wines from earlier. Very spicy and fruity on the palate. These wines can be delicious but very closed down early, but this is at its peak, so to speak, just full of flavor that lingers and surprisingly, almost light on the tongue. This is what happens when top flight producers with good grapes make wine that doesn’t force wine media-approved blackberry flavor down your throat.

1997 Luciano Sandrone – Barolo, Cannubi Boschis
While this event wasn’t really planned to be an illustration in the various aspects of older wines, nor a showdown between classic winemaking and modern winemaking, it has certainly turned out that way. This Barolo is from a storied property, but you’d never know it was Barolo. While it’s not poorly made, it only tastes like berries and oak (more specifically, it tastes like vanilla and lotion). It may shed some of the obvious vanilla flavor over time, but this will never show that kind of elegance we saw in earlier wines.

1976 JJ Christoffel – Urziger Wurzgarten, Trockenberenauslese
In contrast to red wines, which get lighter as sediment falls out of the wine, whites get browner and darker as they age. And instead of tannins helping to preserve the wine and breaking down to provide flavor, the high sugar and acid content in Rieslings like this tend to be the preservative element that lets them age so well. And this is a perfect illustration of both: It pours a dark brown, caramel color, a stark contrast to the highlighter yellow of a younger wine, and it is holding up very well. Tastes like toffee and tart mixed fruit jam. Very sweet but still in balance and drinkable. This isn’t a dessert wine; it’s dessert, period.

*  *  *  *  *

Wines made for keeping aren’t inherently better than other bottles, but they’re unquestionably different. Tasting notes, no matter how descriptive, can’t really convey the nuance and elegance of properly stored, cellared wines. And a single blogger living on the outskirts of Detroit with a modest history with aged wine can’t possibly do them justice.

But hopefully, he can convince you they’re worth seeking out.

Without a cool, dark space with relatively consistent temperature in which to store wines for 5, 10, 20 years – or more importantly, without the patience to wait that long – the only way to try old wines is to buy them from a trusted retailer that specializes in holding on to bottles, buying other people’s cellars, or buying up library releases (i.e., when a winery sells older stock that it has kept at the winery for aging).

Locally, our choices are limited. I’m sure that there are other stores of which I’m not aware, but a Detroiter’s best bet is to stop in and see Elie in Royal Oak or perhaps to ask another retailer to special order something if you have knowledge of a library release coming to town. I know that both Western Market in Ferndale and Cloverleaf in Royal Oak have purchased one or two older vintages of Rieslings in years past.

Alternatively, hit the Internet. Places like Cellar Raiders and Chambers Street Wine have a good track record of finding properly stored wines and selling them off. A good retailer will probably offer suggestions or tasting notes – Chambers often does – but if one is uncertain as to a particular vintage or producer, an hour or so of poking around Google will reveal a lot of the information one could need to get started.

Cost becomes a factor for buying cellared wines or library releases, of course. But these aren’t daily drinkers, and the way I’ve hurdled the expense barrier is to (a) only buy a tiny number of these per year, (b) do research, wait patiently, and buy very selectively, and (c) start a tiny side business that gives me a little leeway to blow on a $100 or $125 bottle. Any or all of these are a good way to avoid timidly asking your local bank for a wine mortgage.

Finally, if you’re really desperate to try some older wines and don’t have a penny to your name, you could always come to the next Gourmet Underground Detroit event, hope Steve shows up, and suck up to him. He likes good food, wine, and scotch. And he accepts gifts.

Tonight, moved perhaps by the crisp fall air and some primeval need for fatty richness, I decided to take advantage of a big hunk of beef that had been lingering in my freezer, throwing together some veggies and this grilled steak with a bernaise sauce. The night thus seemed appropriate for a revisiting of Grolet, which might cut through all that nicely.

The 2004 starts closer to that “gorgeous” state than its elder counterpart, with a more rounded texture and some elegant tobacco flavors. Some blackberry up front, though it’s much more natural tasting than most bordeaux with blackberry. Not nearly the obnoxious, contemporary expression of Merlot that I’ve come to loathe, there’s lots of black currant that carries through in the form of acidity in the finish. It’s pretty and feminine to the nose; and it’s full and flavorful on the palate. Though this could certainly last for several years to come, there’s no way I’ll be able to wait on my other bottle.

With a case discount, I paid less than $15 for this, plus shipping, which was probably around $2/bottle. I doubt anyone will confuse this Cotes de Bourg for a stellar classed-growth wine, but then, no one will confuse it with other wines at its price point. It truly stands apart as a value.

Name: Tete de Cuvee
Vintage: 2004
Procuder: Catherine & Jean-Luc Hubert of Chateau la Grolet
Location: Bordeaux (France)
Grape(s): Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 13.0%