Chateau Latour, 1964

One of my New Year's resolutions is to update this blog more frequently, rather than storing up a month's worth of drinking and then writing an enormous post about it, making vague comments along the lines of "um this was quite good, I think. Now let me cast my mind back. Was it red or white?"

So getting things off to a good start, there's plenty to write about the period between Christmas and New Year as we spent several evenings in drinking exciting things. We were most looking forward to this 1964 Chateau Latour. I'm trying to establish Chateau Latour as a New Year's Eve tradition - last year we had the 1960 vintage, and I appear not to have blogged about it, probably because I was off to Burgundy directly afterwards. The previous December, back in 2009, we had the 1997 vintage at ACC's famous Christmas tasting and my eyes were opened as I realised I'd discovered my dream claret.

The cork probably looks elongated in this photo, but it was very long, and you can make out the 1964 on it.

I was very lucky to get both the 1964 and 1965 in an auction earlier in the year for a knockdown price, between 1/3 and 1/4 of the market rate. We think the reason it was going cheap was because the label was mucked up and you can't see the vintage. This would mean that restaurateurs and collectors weren't interested - good news for me! The vintage was clear on the cork, which was exceptionally long and which G extracted with masterly precision, no easy process. The level was mid shoulder which considering its age wasn't a major cause for concern.

I was able to swing into action and use one of my new Moleskine Carnet des Vins (thanks to D and G and C for these - I ended up with two! clearly this year's on-trend Christmas present - but not a problem as have already used up quite a bit of the first one) and also the two Riedel claret glasses which Mum kindly gave me. It was a good Christmas for wine-related gifts. The Carnet des Vins comes with a number of stickers expressing various sentiments, which I doubted whether I'd be using - until I saw the one with "Best ever!" on it. That, in a nutshell, was the Latour 1964 experience.

We decanted it and it took 50 minutes to get going. I couldn't get over how beautiful it looked. Intensely dark and glossy, glinting like a jewel, it was a pleasure to look at. I haven't really recorded the nose, as it was quite dumb to start with and only opened up after we'd started drinking it. On the palate it had the cedary thing going on which is what I look for in a claret, and a velvety mouthfeel. It was muscular and powerful, packed with flavours including liquorice and marinated black cherry. The finish went on forever as you'd expect.

Another night in at A de V Towers

Proper conversation was frequently replaced by incoherent noises, because I had sipped some and was reluctant to swallow it. We had it with some excellent roast sirloin from the Ginger Pig and I had to eat my dinner very slowly. G thought it might have gone better with game, and I suggested perhaps venison, but the sirloin did the job very well.

It was a wine to be savoured and G stated that it was complete, which is high praise from him. I think what struck us both was how it had no sign of age, given that it was 47 years old! It was fully mature but we thought it could last another 20 years, which immediately made me start wondering how I could get hold of some more. I don't drink a lot of claret - not because I don't like it but because it's just so damned expensive compared to Burgundy - so I didn't know much about 1964 as a vintage but G tells me it was a very good one, not in the league of 1961 or 1970 but not far off. This made me realise again how lucky I was to get it, as Latour from those vintages is pushing four figures.

All in all, this was the best claret I've ever had, and the best wine I've ever had too. Desert island stuff. I'm looking forward to drinking the 1965 in due course, although it may have to wait until New Year's Eve 2012.