Château Léoville Poyferre St Julien 1855 2ième Cru 1945

Tasted in Melbourne at a wonderful Bordeaux wine lunch, this showed clear sweetness to the strawberry fruit, springing to life in the way that often happens in the final years of a very old wine. Curls of smoke, undergrowth and tobacco leaf were the dominant aromatics at first, with osyter shell salinity the dominant flavour. White truffles, liquorice root followed soon after, and although acidity was evident on the finish, this had a softness and a whisperingly delicate structure. Already owned by the Cuvelier family at the time, as they arrived in 1920. Blend not recorded, re-corked at the château in 2000.