Figeac 1975

The advanced color suggests a 30-40-year old wine. However, the 1975 Figeac possesses a knock-out bouquet of cedar, ripe, jammy, cherry, and curranty fruit, Asian spices, and herbal tea. The superb nose is followed by a wine that is beginning to dry out, with the tea component becoming more noticeable and the tannin beginning to have the upper hand on the wine’s fruit. There are ripe cherry/herb/coffee-like flavors, but this wine may be at the end of its useful plateau of drinkability. Contradicting these observations, the 1975 held up for two days in a decanter before fading.

Managing to avoid the pitfalls of the difficult 75 vintage, the medium-bodied wine is one of the more elegant, expressions of the vintage. Roes, red fruits, mint leaf, tobacco, spice, and earth combine perfectly, leaving you with a lifted, earthy, leafy, and red-fruited finish.

Drink: now-2035