Chateau Prieure Lichine 1979 (1x75cl)

Over forty-five years in bottle. For most people this is a birth-year or anniversary bottle rather than a Tuesday one, and that's the right way to think about it - the year on the label is doing as much work as the wine.

Be realistic about it. Bottles this old vary a lot, and how one has held is impossible to know until the cork is out. Stand it upright for two days, use a gentle corkscrew or an ah-so, open it at the table and pour straight off the sediment. Keep a second bottle in reserve for the evening.

Tasting notes

A left bank blend at nearly fifty years typically has very little fresh fruit left, usually leaning to dried figs, tobacco, tea leaf, forest floor and old leather, with tannins essentially gone. Wines this mature generally show best in the first twenty or thirty minutes.