Grape Wine Journey

It was a wine tasting lunch on a cold and breezy Saturday. The wine was known as Chateau Mouton Barone Philippe in the 70’s, but now everyone knows the wine as Chateau d’Armalihac – a fifth growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.

As with most of the Chateaus in Bordeaux, the history of the vineyard had gone through many changes and ownership.  It was sold to Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1933 and became part of the Mouton Rothschild family.

The vineyard is in the Pauillac region – same as Chateau Lynch Bages and Chateau Pontet Canet also 5^th Growth.

The lunch tastings was in a restaurant in the heart of Wanchai – QRE Plaza.  We tasted 4 vintage from the 70’s – 76’, 75’, 71’ and 70’.  The style is definitely very different than the modern day Bordeaux style, fruit does not stand out on the nose and palate.   It is supposed to show the terrior of the region – soil.

There was one commonality across the vintages from the 70’s, they were tannic but acidity was unusually high. The climate was cold and vinification was not as sophisticated, so acidity is high.

The 1976 showed dried fruit on the nose, but not as much on the palate.  The length was long.  We tasted the 76’ again in 30 minutes, it was definitely more open and balance.

1975 was supposed to be a good vintage; however the 75’ Ch Mouton Baronne Philippe was not very impressive.  It did not show any fruit on the nose and palate, a bit grassy.  The wine did not change much after 30 minutes.

1971 showed grass and milk on the nose and dried prune on the palate.  The length was not very long.  The final vintage 1970 was also a good vintage.  The wine showed grass, smoke and mutton on the nose.  However, the length was short.

While we were sharing our tasting notes, we also enjoyed a sumptuous meal with a sparkling wine from Bordeaux, Seigneurs D’Aigulhe 2006 and Chateau Beychevelle 2004 – all from Bordeaux.

Soft Shell Crab w/Wasabi Mayonnaise

When we bid farewell to the organizer – Concord Wine, we were all very delighted to have the chance of tasting a series of wines from the 70’s which are hard to locate these days!