GATC was giving these away at the BAWE Highend tasting in December. I opened this during the afternoon when the Raiders game started. I decanted into a decanter with ground glass closure. I kept the decanter closed as I figured the wine wouldn't need alot of air (and since I'm the only one drinking I don't want it to open up too fast). The cork came out in two pieces, I broke off the last 1/4". I however had no problems extracting any of the cork. The cork was pretty soaked but it did not look like there was leakage. I wiped the bottle well as with a bottle this old the foil was made of lead. At first the wine seemed very earthy with no fruit and little nose. After about two hours the wine seemed to open up and there was lots of earth on the nose with leather and dark fruits on the tongue. The tanins are pretty much gone on this wine with a bit of sweetness on the midpalate and some bite on the back of the tongue.

Overall a nice wine. Thank you very much GATC.

Btw, this bottle was 73Cl (730 ml) or 24 fluid ounces. I found this a bit odd. Has anyone seen a bottle of wine this size before?

Tasted at the Sept. 2004 BAWE Bordeaux Tasting...

Moderate bricking, the nose on this wine seems utterly washed out, smelling of ocean water and lacking anything resembling fruit. On the palate this is thin, watery, and dirty tasting – simply put, awful stuff.