Vintage
The wine merchant, John Armit, was staying at the chateau of a French friend and was invited to do a blind tasting of one of his host's favourite wines. After the usual swirling, sniffing and spitting, John's conclusion was that it was definitely a Lafite but he was uncertain about the year. He hazarded a guess at 1929. "You're 50 years out," his host replied. John was amazed: he'd tasted the 1979 vintage before and it bore little resemblance to the wine in his glass. "No, not 1979, 1879!" his host grinned. (No blog tomorrow, as I'm off clay pigeon shooting)
posted by Whispering Walls at 11:12 am
6 Comments:
What he spat out was probably about £50 worth
Although, saying that, the initial guess was really very good, and it's a mistake anyone could make.
Nice story, WW. Enjoy shoot!
I've probably mentioned this before but many years ago I was buying apples in France, and the vendor took me out for dinner with a couple of other people. He drove us to a shed in the middle of nowhere, with a truly gigantic shed beside it.
Once the food was ordered, he turned to me and said " What wines would you like?"
" Oh some white to start, and red with the beef"
" No no, you misunderstand, WHICH wines do you want?" This went on for a bit until he stressed he wanted not only vinyards but years as well.
" OK," I said, " A Pouilly Fuisse of 1971, A Romanee Conti of 1973 and for dessert a Louis Roderer Crystal of 1955"
To my astonishment, they all duly arrived.
When I asked for an explanation the apple man and the restauarant owner burst into laughter and led me into the shed next door - and down and down. It was the most stupendous place I have ever seen. Apparently, he simply bought some of the best wines every year since before the war. It turned out he was a huge negociant and loved his business, excpet he really liked entertaining friends with good wines. Extraordinary.
Right, WW, here's your starter for 10
How many grapes does it take to make an average bottle of wine ? [You can be 50 out either way].
This from one of the more bizarre pub quizzes I've attended in my time. [The obligatory 'picture' round for the half-time was replaced by having to identify seeds, as the quizmaster [mistress?] was a farmer's daughter...
And what is the bottle which is 20 times the size of a standard bottle of champagne ?
My guess is 5000...As for the champagne, that's a Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sorry to say that the largest bottle I've ever opened was a Jeroboam. Perhaps I should organise a Nebuchadnezzar party for WW readers?
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