1946 Figeac
BY NEAL MARTIN |
During en primeur week, I attended a dinner at Château Figeac. Following a raft of wines in large formats that included the 1989 and 1975, the evening’s climax was a mystery wine that guests were invited to identify. A few brave souls raised their hands to give their tentative answer – all wildly off, not by years, but decades.
It turned out to be a genuine surprise, a 1946, the “weak link” of post-war vintages and one hardly ever seen nowadays. To date, the only bottle I have encountered in 25 years is coincidentally its neighbour, Cheval Blanc, poured at a private dinner in Hong Kong. The Manoncourts had chanced upon a stash of 300 perfectly-stored bottles, and so what could be a better occasion? Smitten by the wine, I splashed it over social media only for a friend to later remind me that they were due to repeat the dinner with the same “mystery wine” that evening. This might explain why, according to first-hand accounts, half the guests immediately and quite miraculously nailed the vintage. So how did it taste?
During en primeur week, I attended a dinner at Château Figeac. Following a raft of wines in large formats that included the 1989 and 1975, the evening’s climax was a mystery wine that guests were invited to identify. A few brave souls raised their hands to give their tentative answer – all wildly off, not by years, but decades.
