(English) My Year in Review: 2023

(English) by Michael Apstein

对不起这篇文章没有中文版,其他语言版本请见English。 For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

Choosing the best of 2023 is easy for me—the marriage of both our daughters to men we like and admire. Of course, wine played a role in the numerous celebrations that accompanied the weddings. We uncorked and drank many birth year wines, 1988 and 1992, that I had purchased soon after the kids were born, which reminded me of important lessons that I’d like to pass on.

Most importantly, wine is not just about the wine. It’s not consumed in a vacuum. I suspect all these wines tasted better because of the setting in which they were consumed and the memories they evoked.

The still youthful 1992 magnum of Château Latour, packed with that Pauillac power of tar and minerals, showed that great producers excel even in tough years! Echoing that sentiment were the elegant and graceful—and ready to drink but not tired—magnum of 1992 Léoville Las Cases.

Seven-fifties of the 1992 stablemates Taylor Fladgate and Fonseca, both still youthful at 30 years of age, proved how great producers can turn out monumental wines in superb years. These both need another decade, at least. My daughter will no doubt open the magnums of these at her kids’ weddings!

Celebrations require Champagne and no Champagne is better than Krug. The caramel-y yet fresh and vigorous1988 was testimony to Krug’s justified fame and a reminder of just how splendidly Champagne can develop with bottle age.

Louis Latour’s stunning 1988 Corton Grancey, from magnum, was quintessential Burgundy, showing what I call flavor without weight. Its stature was evident when my red-wine-averse son-in-law asked for a second glass. It upheld the Grand Cru reputation of that appellation.

A splendid bottle of 1988 Château Lafaurie Peyraguey reminded me to open more Sauternes during the year. What is seldom perceived is how resilient these wines are. More to the point, they don’t deteriorate after being opened and can hold up in bottle, unchanged, in the fridge for a week or more. The elegant nuances of apricots in the 1988 Lafaurie Peyraguey remained evident and fresh even after being uncorked—and forgotten—in the fridge for a week.

And speaking of the virtue of large bottles, an imperial (6 liters) of brilliant 1988 Château Talbot was the perfect size for a large rehearsal dinner. The hard tannins of the 1988 Bordeaux vintage had melted away, revealing the suave grandeur and grace of this classic St. Julien. Amazingly, even at 35 years of age, the Talbot expanded as it sat in the glass! I well remember how impenetrable and tightly wound this wine was in its youth. Yet, I also remember how balanced it was even then. The lesson: If a wine is balanced in its youth do give it the time it needs to show at its best.

Not all were birth year wines. The still fresh and glorious magnum of 1989 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was, unsurprisingly, even better than from a normal sized bottle. It’s complexity, elegance and richness were astounding for a 34-year white wine. It reminded me that great white Burgundy, like great red Bordeaux, reach a plateau and stay there for years or even decades.

My advice, if you have adequate storage, is to buy big bottles of age-worthy wines from producers you like, even in less than grand years. You will have events—graduations, engagements, births—to celebrate down the road.

Speaking of the best. This article was, for me, my most enjoyable one to write in 2023, because, like the wines, it brought back happy memories. So, thank you Ian for suggesting the topic.

 

 

Michael Apstein

(English) Michael Apstein has written about wine for over three decades. As a free-lance writer, he has written over 300 wine columns for The Boston Globe newspaper. His writing has also appeared in a variety of U.S., Canadian, and U.K. publications, including Decanter, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Magazine, and Wine and Spirits. Furthermore, he has been a regular guest commentator on Whitley on Wine, a radio show based in San Diego and broadcast nationally. Over the course of his career, Michael, who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has received numerous awards, including a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2000 the Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne Press Trophy in 2008. Michael also judges frequently at numerous international and national wine competitions and is a well-respected wine educator who taught at the Boston Center for Adult Education for 20 years, an activity for which Bon Appetit magazine chose him as one of five instructors nationwide whose “focused classes closely examine a specific wine producing region or wine style.”

作者的全部文章
留言评论

此站点使用Akismet来减少垃圾评论。了解我们如何处理您的评论数据

Michael Apstein