1963 Leoville Las Cases St Julien
2nd Growth Medoc
Grand Cru Classe
The 1963 vintage was a really poor vintage to start off with, light fruits and acidic. To celebrate the Rabbit zodiac sign for 2023 Chinese New Year, I opened this ugly looking bottle that has “chest fill”, easily 25% of the wine gone (I suspect it just vaporized, the poorer the vintage, the more the water content will disappear). Anyone would have written off such a poor appearance bottle, except Bok! Knowing my provenance, I gave it a 33% chance of survival rather than totally writing it off. I chose Leoville Las Cases as it’s a super-second label that’s “never ready.” I uncorked it with The Durand, the cork still disintegrated into pieces that I have to filter off the wine. Surprisingly, not much sediment. I warned all my audiences that this bottle may just be symbolic rather than drinkable. Turned out to be wine of the night (amongst Mouton Rothschild 1975 and a bunch of other top labels)! Lively, albeit a bit light, very engaging and almost Burgundian style, the acidity was so lively that the wine really talked to all the audiences. A good surprise to start off 2023!
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