New year’s eve is unfolding with some top wines. Only Billecart-Salmon NV Blanc de Blancs to come after this and I am afraid I will be too carried away with the mood of new year to write that up after midnight. Keep drinking those fine wines, boys and girls!
Champagne vintage 1985, Krug
When this was opened it had an incredible, and rather surprising, nose of fresh red currants and raspberries. It was nice, but a bit odd. As we are drinking this the nose has shown more mushroom and toast character. It is also quite creamy with honey notes. No hints of oak. It is certainly very complex and very impressive. The mousse is very fine, and there is a lovely acidity to the palate as well keeping this very dense Champagne lively and full of beans. There is a real concentration to the flavours: toast, mushrooms and fruit all bound together in perfect harmony. The finish is extraordinarily long with serious complexity. I was a bit surprised and slightly under-whelmed by this wine when we first opened it, but as it has had some time to breathe this has developed into a truly great and really sexy bottle of Champagne. It has it all: weight and power, refinement and complexity, style and class. Wehay!