off the scale

sometimes opportunities arise in curious ways. yesterday as part of a meet, greet, and fete of departure a colleague was given and opened a spectacular old wine. the tasting notes from chateau mouton rothschild say it all. there is no doubt that this was an old wine just seeing its brick color, but the nose was fresh and the tastes had evolved and matured. tasting an old wine like this keeps one's perspective in balance as most of us only rarely get to taste wines such as this one and we more often are drinking younger, fruit forward wines. this was a special opportunity which i greatly appreciated. thank you rf.



1978
The wine has the brickish colour one would expect, an attractive red-orange.
The nose still displays plenty of fruit as aromas of blackberry, bilberry and blackcurrant liqueur meld with more complex oaky notes of caramel, tobacco and spice.
On the palate, very smooth tannins combine in a refined and elegant structure with lovely notes of pepper, kirsch, leather and humus.
The pleasantly long finish has all the character of a wine that has aged well, entirely in keeping with the vintage.

About the artist for 1978 - JEAN-PAUL RIOPELLE
Montreal-born Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-) and his fellow-painter P.E. Borduas founded the "Automatisme" group to challenge the academic style then dominant in Canada with their 1948 manifesto Refus Global. Working in Paris, New York and Canada, Riopelle belongs to Lyrical Abstraction: inspired by the vital force of nature, his thickly-painted, highly-coloured work expresses an initial violence, underscored by the use of spatulas and palette-knives, contained by his geometrical composition.

For the 1978 Mouton Rothschild label, Riopelle prepared two designs: it was impossible to choose between them, and each was therefore used for half the vintage.