1980 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Montrachet

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  10/4/2019 - sjwshiraz wrote:

  To set the scene:
  
  Back in the late eighties I picked a case of 1980 Lafon Montrachet from Christies for less than GBP 250 per case. Whilst not be any means a good year, the wine was surprisingly good, as you’d expect from the vineyard and the grower, and completed a vertical I was building.
  
  In 1994 I moved to Asia, and brought two wine cabinets worth of wine with me, including what I thought was the last bottle of the 1980 Monty. That bottle is now the sole survivor of the bottles I originally shipped with me in 1994, and possibly the most taxed wine bottle in the world, having been declared to customs in HK twice and Singapore twice as I relocated between the two cities in the ‘90s. For sentimental reasons therefore, and the belief that the wine is probably undrinkable, I thought I’d never open it.
  
  Fast forward to 2010:
  
  Whilst rummaging through my cellar in France last week I stumbled across another bottle of the 1980 Lafon which must have slipped through the net. Looking through the bottle it was a deep gold, with a heavy sediment. I had very low expectations but satisfied myself that the wine would work well in a sauce for the Poulet de Bresse we were eating for dinner, if, as expected, it proved to be oxidised.
  
  The wine was served blind to a few friends after lunch. Suffice to say, the wine was a revelation. No one guessed it to be an old Burgundy (despite everyone knowing my love for the region, and having had a vertical of Ramonet Monty in the morning), instead everyone was of the view that it was a great, old Sauternes from an unheralded year. The colour was mid-dark gold. There was no hint of oxidation. The nose was very deep with rich botrytis, honey wax and lanolin with a surprising sweetness on the palate (or “lushness” as someone said). Everyone was stunned when I showed them the bottle. We drank it over a two hour period during which time it added weight and richness.
  
  All in all, a great tasting experience and a lovely bottle.
  
  Now back in HK, the dilemma is what to do with the other bottle that stares at me every time I open my wine cabinet….

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