Surprises upon aging of standard wines

A statement was made on Rogov's board about wines, in this case Israeli wines, often being drunk too young. The statement brought me back to my relative youth, when I consumed some really surprisingly good '64 and '66 Beaulieu and Martini standard Cabs in 1979, not just surprisingly drinkable but actually at least an order of magnitude better than the current releases in '79. It got me to thinking that others might have surprising stories to tell about standard wines that were brought to a "superpremium" level with age. Anyone?

Well, they may not have made it up to "superpremium" level, but a number of recent bottle of "ordinary" Napa Cabs from 1990 and 1991 were quite excellent, and really still youthful! Things like Stag's Leap Napa, Mondavi Napa, Frog's Leap, Groth, and Newton. I think the Mondavi Napa was originally the cheapest, and it really, really surprised me with its performance!

A 'humble" 1977 village Gevrey Chambertin from an unknown (to me) producer (1977 Gevrey Chambertin by Emile Bourgeot) with lunch sometime in August or September 2006. After decanting for sediment and around 40 minutes of air, it was splendid.

[David M. Bueker]

Paul - long time no see. Welcome back.

I think it is important to note that the competition for top grapes was not so high in the '60s/'70s. Producers (in general) did not make 7 separate vineyard designate bottlings plus three reserve wines, so their base wine was much higher in quality.