Ch. Mouton Rothschild			1970	Pauillac

11/96. Received as present May-96.
First 'real' wine to accompany our first 'real' Friday dinner at our new home.
COLOR: Good color all around, though not particularly dark. Some paling shades towards the rim.
NOSE: At first some bottle smell and sourish green-olives aroma masking much of the fruit made me think the wine may be over its top. It took about 40 minutes for the nose to change completely from the smell of a very common very old wine to a deep rich complex nose, endowed with ripe fruit. Absolutely enticing.
TASTE: The same transformation on the palate. At first, warm feel in the mouth, dominated by acidity. Some fruit still there but hardly any tannins. Then, after an hour and along with the nose, the wine suddenly transformed into a totally different thing. Truly great mouthfilling flavors. Delicate and silky yet deep and complex. Fruit, alcohol, tannins and acidity - all became harmonized in the mouth. A pity only about a third of the bottle was left at that stage...
LENGTH: From first sip to last - extremely long and reverberating aftertaste. At first mostly sourish, then later a bit dry and bitter by the awakened tannins, then finally full-flavored as an extension to the harmonized feel of the taste.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: Medium bodied. Over-acidified and under-tannined for the first 40 minutes. Then, all of sudden, the most perfectly balanced wine imaginable. An amazing example of how a wine can change within one and a half hours of being opened. It's 'plateau' lasted only about 40 minutes. Nothing to write home about for the first 40 minutes, and decaying quickly after 80 minutes, but what a wine during the peak interval...
OVERALL: Superb+! Not much Bordeaux experience to go by, but for the short time the wine was good - it was goooood.
MARK: 18+/20.aaaaaaaaBUY MORE? Yes.

Reach Me? yak@yakshaya.com

Copyright 1996-2003.
Jacob "Yak" Shaya.