What to drink this week

1957 vintage

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a lunch at a well-known London wine merchant where all the wines— and nearly all the guests—were from the 1957 vintage. You will doubtless recall that 1957 was not a particularly good vintage in Bordeaux (‘hard, thin and charmless,’ I seem to remember my father calling it) and not that much better in Burgundy. It was, of course, an exceptional vintage for human beings, although not quite as good as the following one.

Why the event was held

The purpose, as I understood it, was not just to taste some fascinating older wines, but also to experience the way in which wines and human beings mature and age in parallel. Drinking wines from the year of your birth has a special frisson, as the Roman poet Horace well knew.

The wines

We began with a Vouvray from the great Gaston Huet. Described as sec, but more likely demi-sec, it was astonishingly fresh and applescented. Then followed a flight of Burgundies. Some had faded and others had probably been beefed up with a dollop of the warm south. However, the best, a Grands-echezeaux from DRC and a Chambertin from Rousseau, were utterly, beautifully pure, alive and expressive. The Bordeaux flight was more muted, although Haut Brion was suave with a wonderful roast-coffeebean nose, Latour had some power and Lafite a slightly faded grace. Yquem was marmaladey and not especially sweet. It was quite an experience and somehow moving in a way that transcended wine geekery. If you’re looking for older vintages, Christie’s has sales of fine and rare wines in London on November 16 and December 7.