1945 Talbot

From HK wine importer Paulo Pong's UK cellar, in a clear-glass bottle with a very torn label. (The three 1945s we tasted were in very different bottles, presumably because of wartime shortages.) This was definitely the best of the six old clarets tasted this evening, and the only one that was château bottled. It was also the palest wine (no added Algerian?). Really pure and refreshing. Clean as a whistle with sweet but not sickly fruit counterbalanced by fresh acidity. I've been lucky enough to have tasted 1945 first growths and they have all been more concentrated but not necessarily better. A really lovely drink. (JR)