One of the wine experiences of the year. Chateau Batailley's 1964 was in excellent condition, the wine has survived until this date in a remarkable fashion from a vintage hailed as not great, but rather mediocre in Bordeaux. The vintage was more favourable on the right bank, however this left bank Pauillac is still a relevant wine and totally enjoyable at 47 years of age. Actually, it could still be stored for some time as it shows no signs of getting "old", however for all you hedonists out there, this one is for you to enjoy right now.
Having bought the bottle from my favorite wine shop in Lyon, "The Flying Sommelier" (http://www.anticwine.com/), one of the better if not The Best wine shop on earth, we could hardly resist opening it. And in the end, we were really glad they had it in stock, as we would have been short of one big experience on this trip.
Brown colour with an almost yellow hue (ok, orange, however light). Mature bouquet is dominated by figue jam, turning into coffee which I personally love. Plenty of acidity here, the mature red wine still has rich fruit content which, together with acidity, created a mouthfeel of sweet liquor-like nectar although the wine is totally dry. Long aftertaste, hints of figue on the palate and after 1.5 hours of decanting, coffee flavours emerged. Tannins could still be felt. From very ripe grapes, the wine was potentially really heavy and full-bodied when young, however now developed into a charming mature full-bodied wine. It has aged beautifully, turning into fuit liquer, no leather nor animal notes here. Excellent.
