1982 Etienne Sauzet, Puligny-Montrachet
Of-course this is orange wine, but it’s orange for a reason – it’s 35 years-old. The nose has a toasty, reductive, biscuit-crumb and lanolin style – but there’s really no sherry-style oxidation here. In the mouth it’s actually large-scaled, in an almost overblown style, yet, as the shouted flavours fade, this clings on with a nice line of finely textured flavour – this is the vintage – still easily discernable. There are older wines that you can enjoy completely on their own, but this, however, needs a little food. I tried with cheese and biscuits – I anyway prefer whites with most cheese – though in this case (I’ll admit that) the Stilton was likely to be overkill. But no! All in proportion, the captivating nose was retained and the shouting palate was much more disciplined and enjoyable. Yum – some left for tomorrow too!
Rebuy – No Chance – luckily I already have more in the cellar 🙂

This is exactly the type of wine that spits in the face of somebody attempting to explain to me that a 7 year-old oxidised grand cru is old and should already have been drunk…