Château Ducru-Beaucaillou St Julien 1855 2ième Cru 1923

Rosebud, saffron, oyster shell, a wine where the colour is pale tawny-orange, barely standing, and yet the intensity of flavour builds slowly in the palate. This is 100 years old, and still delivers wild strawberry fruits, with stands of saffron and white pepper. Seems wrong to reduce to a tasting note, it gains in sweetness as it opens, edges of orange peel and soot. Decanted two hours before drinking, even more incredibly (the sommelier said, ‘if it’s lasted 100 years, it can last another two hours’ and clearly he is right, but I would err on the side of caution if you are lucky enough to find a bottle of this wine). A Ducru made under ownership of the Johnston family. Recorked in 2011, with the original vintage used for any refilling required.