CWD: Timeless beauty

M

MLipton

Mark Lipton
As one or two of you might recall, Jean gave me for my birthday a bottle of the 1945 Dom. Hut Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Moelleux. Query here produced SFJoe's suggestion of pairing it with lobster or sunset. For her birthday this week, Jean decided to spend a week at a beach house on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Her chosen birthday dinner consisted of 4 lobsters flown in from parts NE with corn, so what better occasion to open the fabled bottle, hoping all the while that it is free of the dread Portuguese Menace? In the event, the lobsters were boiled and cracked, the bottle opened, decanted and served. The wine was dark amber colored and free of any bottle stink, including (thankfully) TCA. Jean, eternally skeptical of any white wine that's been in bottle for longer than a month, was won over entirely by the wine, which she termed "a revelation." Why? Vibrant fruit, quince and orange peel, giving way to a subtle hint of bergamot, thick mouthfeel but off-dry at most and finishing light on the palate with a clean acidic wash. Over the course of three hours, the orange peel faded and was replaced by more herbal character, but the wine showed no signs of fading to the very last. As SFJoe predicted, sunset proved a better match than the lobster, but both worked well. Is it Putnam's influence across the state that gives rise to my photographic impulse? Who knows...

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Being a recent release, the label and cork were in pristine condition:
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Jean asked why the cork looked so new? Are these bottles recorked, or are they only recently bottled? Also, why is the end of the cork charcoal black? So many questions...

Beyond the aching beauty of the wine itself is its well-known back story of a young Gaston Hut schlepping across France on foot after his liberation from a German prison camp to get back to his vineyards in time to make this wine. Inspirational in every possible sense of the word, and an experience I hope to carry with me for the remainder of my life.

Mark Lipton
 
A perfect way to enjoy one of the more perfect wines in the world. That said, I'd quibble with your calling it off-dry. I've found it plenty sweet, but there's riveting acidity to it that keeps it nice 'n zingy.

Happy Birthday! You certainly celebrated in style.
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
A perfect way to enjoy one of the more perfect wines in the world. That said, I'd quibble with your calling it off-dry. I've found it plenty sweet, but there's riveting acidity to it that keeps it nice 'n zingy.

Happy Birthday! You certainly celebrated in style.
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Thanks, Brad. I'll pass on your wishes to the birthday girl. Plenty sweet is perhaps a subjective call. My off-dry characterization was in reference to its perceived sweetness, which does of course take into account that acidity you speak of. De gustibus, as always.

Mark Lipton
 
There's a helluva lot to appreciate in this tn, Mark...I think what I like best is that Jean gave you the bottle for your birthday, and you opened it on her's. (That it wasn't corked; in fact delish, and that the wine - with such age, and a background, to boot - was a revelation to her are icing on the cake...as is that sunset photo. Thanks and many happy returns.)
 
Hey, that's great!

They recork before they release, typically. I think the dark mold is what grows on corks that leak just a little low pH, highish sugar wine.

Happy birthday to Jean for me.

These wines grow on you, don't they? You could get to like them.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Great story and picture. Is that residual sugar in the glass?
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Oswaldo,
Apologies for the delayed response, but I'd assumed that your question was a witty jest for the first 3-4 readings. Now I get it. No, what you see in the photo are bubbles in the glass. Although I am willing to lug a case of wine along for Jean's b-day week, I draw the line at bringing our own glasses, even though those supplied with the house are less than perfect. As you can see, I chose the bowl shape instead of the more typical white wine glass shape, though both were available. Jean used the latter, but neither of us could discern much of a difference either in the nose or palate impressions. Take that, Georg Riedel!

Mark Lipton
 
Boy, I'm really slower than usual today. Now I understand that the actual glass was manufactured to contain bubbles in its texture. Yuck.
 
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