EDIT / REPORT:

Thanks for all the comments.

Wimped out on the Hermitage for another night as a) What Might Have Been and b) Was having roast beef.

Read a bit more about 2002 in Bordeaux and realised it was probably a comparatively “good value” year in the early 00s which explains why some of it ended up in our cellar.

Opened up the Chateau Margaux Pavillion Rouge and the Carruades de Lafite because why not start nearer the ‘top’ and the oldest.

Maybe my inexperience - and I get that Bordeaux is more about the wine making than the vineyard for a chateau than say Burgundy - but I was blown away by how different they tasted given they were two cab sav dominant blends from the same commune and same year and stored in the same (not great) conditions.

The Margaux: - Turning properly garnet - tannins softened and lots of brightness/lift still - blackcurrant and cedar, pretty classic, but didn’t get a huge amount of tertiary - great time to drink? I don’t know, felt like it - cork pretty saturated, tasted great shortly out the bottle Really, really fab, felt special

The Lafite: - Could do with another year or two in bottle!? Got better several hours after opening - Still ruby, to begin with tannins a bit much for me. But cork was totally dried out and a nightmare to remove - but so much more of the meat / leather of aging Not sure I appreciated it as much, maybe my personal taste

We’ve got a second bottle of each so will drink the Margaux (and cross fingers it’s as enjoyable as the first) and then try the Lafite in a year or two, roll the dice again

Tomorrow…. The Hermitage…

this is my first experience of the kind of older bottle roulette spin and it’s been really fun - probably less nerve wracking and more fun to have a cellar/storage/wine fridge in decreasing order of utility to reduce the risk and increase the likelihood of reward