1989 Joël Taluau St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes

This is such a gorgeous wine, when we first opened it up it had a really surprising amount of soft red and black fruits on the nose, but as it has opened up the nose has definitely gathered more pyrazines to go along, so there's a lot of savory green notes to accompany. It's really gorgeous, the palate is deep but not overly rich, with still amazing acidity. It's not often you taste a wine this old and think about how it definitely could even go longer, continue to develop in the bottle - which makes sense, since we've been selling this same vintage for a number of years. The palate is dark and earthy, with lots of savory mushroom, touches of soy umami, some barrel spices, and a tarry tobacco. This is impeccably aged Cabernet Franc and just something truly special, while there's a lot of green notes that I might not like in other wines, in Cabernet Franc they all fit into place perfectly. Well integrated and harmonious, we wouldn't want this wine to be anything else. For what it is, it is absolutely perfect.