Took a chance on this wine as they need 6 or 7 years to shed some of the high acidity of youth, and after that happens you can assess what is left. Chancy keeping this around for 23 years. It was a mid golden colour, with an oxidative nose (as expected) that passed with time once opened. It became a honey and white flower nose with nutmeg underneath. In the mouth it was a medium to heavy bodied wine with a slightly oily texture – lots of stuffing still there, with ample acidity. With some more time in the glass I was getting beeswax and more pronounced honey, and an intriguing saffron note. There was ample acidity and it finished medium long. This was a bell curve wine – after opening it went from a definite meh to a very interesting wine at peak and then a half hour later it crashed into an oxidative mess.
There was a sticker on the bottle saying that the ministry of agriculture had awarded it a gold medal in 1999 – no idea what that means. In any case this had shown more longevity that one could reasonably expect and I was glad to come across it in the cellar.
Served with a pork tenderloin a la moutarde – large trimmed tenderloin slathered with Dijon mustard, S&P, roasted with water in the pan until it hit 135 F., and served sliced with a sauce I really enjoy – you sautee chopped shallot in the bottom of the pan the pork was cooked in, scraping up all the good bits left there, deglazed with white wine and reduced a bit and then augmented with crème fraiche and chopped rosemary and reduced. Veeeerry tasty and a nice foil to a wine with good acidity.