Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Chateau Meyney (St. Estephe) 1989

In 11/2004, when this wine was 15 years old, I noted that it “was still a remarkably young and backward wine.” With four additional years of bottle age, it has reached a plateau of maturity at which I would expect it to remain for at least a decade. It is fully integrated and remarkably well balanced. There is still a core of excellent dark fruits—black cherry and blackcurrant—but there are also the flavors and bouquet of a mature claret, such as leather and pencil shavings. The remaining tannins are soft and rounded, but there’s enough tannic pucker on the finish to suggest that this wine—if properly cellared—will still be going strong when it turns 30. Indeed, as was the case in 2004, this wine still needs a fair bit of breathing time in the decanter to fully open up (say 30 minutes). I’m lucky enough to have 5 bottles left in my cellar. I think I’ll try one in Fall 2009 when it turns 20 and, if my current assessment holds up, parcel the remainder out every couple of years until 2019. Grade: A