1964 La Mission Haut Brion

The 1964 La Mission Haut-Brion continues to drink very well, offering up an expressive bouquet of dark berry fruit, camphor, smoked meats, loamy soil and cigar ash. Medium-bodied, supple and melting, it's a suave, seamless La Mission that's open-knit and charming. While it's fully mature, at least from my cellar in France it shows no sign of decline—testimony to the extraordinary longevity of this estate's wines under the Wolnter brothers' proprietorship.

The 1964 La Mission Haut-Brion is another vintage I have tasted several times, primarily since it once appeared on restaurant lists at prices a fraction of what you will see nowadays. Performances have been variable, some examples feeling musty and distinctly lacking in fruit while one outlier in 2004 was inexplicably sensual. This is one of the better bottles, though still no great shakes. It has a light and leafy bouquet, very autumnal, with fresh tobacco scents developing. The austere palate reveals light, somewhat herbaceous vestiges of black fruit. A dry, rather mean finish leaves you wishing it was the 1966. Bottles should be drunk in the near future. Tasted at the La Mission Haut-Brion dinner in London.

Magnum. Tasted blind to celebrate a 55th birthday. Thick and sweet start but then it dried out a little on the end. Impressive perfume, however, that had a suggestion of tobacco leaf about it. Dense. From another, more concentrated and determinedly tannic era. (JR)