To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the American Wine Society, I opened some 1967 wines with AWS members who were Dionysians. After careful decanting, quick rinsing of the bottles, and re-filling them, they were reviewed with simple cheddar and olives. All had survived the years and even though they’re from a weak vintage, two stood out.

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The wine held up better than the labels. All the examples were from Third Growth Grand Cru Bordeaux, but these two still had some garnet in their golden brown color and a bouquet.

Chateau La Lagune was smooth. It had leather and a slight hint of black fruits on its nose. he cheese was unnecessary to soften any tannin that was left. Both wines were softly decanted, that’s pouring down the side of the carafe instead of splashing the wine and softly back into a cleaned bottle.

The Chateau Malescot-Saint-Exupery, one I use to buy quite often, had the deepest color remaining and a rich barnyard aroma; wet spring forest floor. It finished quite nicely. It comes from the Margaux region and was expected to have the most aroma. All the pours had to be small because each bottle had to serve 28 people.

The Calon-Segur (Lead photo) showed the least complexity, and was well over its peak, but it still was wine. I plan to open a hundred-year-old Bordeaux this winter. If not now, when? In Vino veritas.