Great vintages of famous and expensive wines creates expectations of a profound tasting experience. The restaurant guest brought these wines from his cellar. Sadly, the wines had not stored well The cork of the 1975  La Mission Haut Brion disappeared into the bottle with all the abruptness of knockout of Sonny Liston, unless you were watching very closely, it didn’t even look like the corkscrew touched the cork. Clearly the wine had been stored poorly. I decanted it to get the cork out. It held up nicely, showing  beautiful leather and tobacco notes. The 1982 Cheval Blanc cork split in half as I started to pull it from the bottle. The cork was as dry as sawdust and by that point I was sure the bottle had changed hands a few times and as I tasted it I thought it best not to decant the wine. There was more to lose than gain in my opinion.   Some 1982 are fading. We have had very different results with the vintage recently and storage is key. The Cheval Blanc was good but not great and I was concerned that the wine would fade before the guests got around to drinking it, since it was to be enjoyed with the fourth course. When the guest asked when I had decanted the wine and I answered truthfully that it had been in the past 15 minutes, he was upset and suggested that the 1982 Cheval Blanc was just a “baby” and had another 20 or 30 years ahead of it and the wine would have been so much better had I decanted it hours ago. I did not mention the corks. I did not offer my thoughts on the disappointing quality of the 1982. There is nothing for me to do but nod my head in agreement. The gentleman drank a bottle of 1995 Silver Oak that he had acquired that day side by side with the 1982 Cheval Blanc and declared that the Silver Oak was the better wine. “Who would of thought?”, he said.

Indeed.