Ch Beychevelle 1975

Isn’t it nice to be pleasantly surprised?

From a 375, procured fairly recently at a quite reasonable price, mid shoulder fill and a decimated cork, my expectations were not high.

But the initial nose was somewhat promising, so I strained and decanted.

My wife thought I was nuts making such an effort, but it was her lamb and peas with Syrian rice that inspired me to take a flyer on this one, the night before Thanksgiving. Just easing our way into a day of indulgence.

Very much worth the trouble (and price)! The wine was obviously resolved but retaining a modest tannic backbone. A fully mature claret, with such a silky mouth feel, showing pomegranate, cranberry, cinnamon, gently smoldering Autumn leaves. Not at all on its last legs at 45, but of course no need to wait at this point. I have had a generally good experience with 1975 bdx.

Love the Beychevelle. Who on this board swooped the 1966s from me at the recent Zachys auction?

Bonus: My wife – not an easy critic by any stretch – loved it too!

Nice!

Glad to hear that worked out, and that you’ve had good luck with '75 BDX. I have a mag of 1975 Beau Sejour Becot waiting for my wife’s BDay at the end of Dec, really hoping its a winner!

Sounds wonderful, Kelly - I’ve never actually had a good 75 so I’m extremely jealous!

My birth year so I’ve tried many 75s and have had mixed results. Montrose, PLL and Lynch Bages have all been good, if not great.

Same as Peter, birth year and mixed results.

For me though, sauternes have been the only bottles I found to be consistently solid.

Interesting. There are, or at least used to be, some good ones out there. I even had good luck with some recent 375s of Cantemerle that I snagged off WineBid for $25 per.

I gave up on continuing to find well-stored bottles of this wine awhile ago, but I had a whole bunch of superb bottles and am not at all surprised it’s still in the zone. It’s better than a lot of the bigger names.

Opened a really nice 1966 this summer (not from the Zachys lot!). I’ve really enjoyed Beychevelle - most of the vintages I’ve had were from the 80s. I frequently find older Beychevelle in mixed Bordeaux lots at HDH. In fact, just going through the last several auctions I have bottles of 1961, 1986, and 1989 that I need to collect from HDH.

There’s another idea for the Prodigal Son — you bring one of those next time and I bring the 70!