In the summer of 1996 I found an old bottle of wine hidden in a cellar of my girlfriend´s family. Covered under some dust and stored between 1968 Moselbluemchen and other long decayed lesser wines, there suddenly appeared an old bottle of Bordeaux.

The label of the wine was half ripped off, leaving only the following information:

Not expecting anything spectacular - the bottle came from a home not known for drinking wine - we opened the bottle last july with a couple of friends.

The wine was blurred in colour, clearly much too old, but still had a nice rim. To some surpirse the nose still was fruity, and developing with time. We kind of expected the wine to collapse shortly after having opened the bottle, but even the taste showed clear development. The distinctly dry finish moulded considerably, leaving an old, but nevertheless surprisingly fruity wine. It had never been a great wine, we judged it as a middle class saint emilion, probably vintage 1945 or 1947, obviously the only vintages in which a wine of this quality would stand up after 50 years.

After about half an hour the cork had dried up a little, enabling us to see that the vintage of the wine was 1947. The name of the chateau remained a mystery however, the cork showing not much more readable information than what seems to look as

Chateau Mal(?).......

The wine stood up for the full hour and a half till it was finished, indeed a pleasant surprise, and making us all the more curious what it was.

And here is where I need your help. If any of this rings a bell, please do not hesitate to contact me at C.Balfoort@mailbox.kun.nl. Thanks for any help to solve this enigma.

This page hosted by