From a Jeroboam (5 liter bottle). No J.23 out of 58. The bottle had been standing upright for a while. When the lead capsule was removed, the cork had at some point, likely recently, fallen into the bottle. The bottle was decanted a bit at a time as people arrived and wanted a pour. About 10 to 20 ounces at a time. The wine exceeded our highest expectations. This must have been a monster wine when bottled. The wine is purple in color with a slight dark brown hue. A bit flat but opaque. The nose is great with leather, earthiness, slight cherry fruit, dusty attic and slight mint. Light wispy tannins. On the palate, this is well balanced. Tart cherries with underlying earthiness. Complex and deep. Long finish. This bottle would have worked with typical Bordeaux foods. A little Brie cheese worked nicely with the wines acidity. Not sure how many of the other 57 bottles are left in this format, but this one still had some fruit and plenty of tertiary notes and could have gone further (although it won't get better). It was certainly past peak but a wonderful experience at this point. The label was done by Georges Braque considered the first artist of international stature to design the Mouton label. Braque, along with Picasso, were the creators of cubism.
