Don’t let the percentages bother you, says this writer

1979. Margaret Thatcher came to power and the USSR invaded Afghanistan. I certainly recall both events, but I think that Nottingham Forest beating Malmö FF to win the European Cup had a greater influence on me (I have just flicked onto YouTube to watch, once again, Trevor Francis’s awesome header into the top of the net, giving the keeper no chance); as for Pink Floyd’s release of ‘The Wall’, well, it barely left the turntable.

It was probably Roger Waters’ lyrics, plus Dave Gilmour’s guitar solo on ‘Comfortably Numb’, that ensured that I was completely unaware of the quality of the vintage in Bordeaux. Digging around, I see that the late, great, Michael Broadbent MW only awarded it a couple of stars, declaring that, “The wines were generally at their best in the mid-1980s…but since then, the paucity of fruit, flesh and extract has left the tannin high and dry. Except for the great Pomerols, give the vintage a miss”.

Very succinct! Little wonder that the year’s clarets swiftly disappeared off the radar – indeed, there were very few on the John Harvey & Sons’ inventory when I joined said company in 1986.

So, when a great friend posed the question last year, “Shall we drink this?”, I did not hold out much hope. For he was holding a bottle of 1979 Château Léoville Poyferré, 2ème Cru Classé, Saint-Julien. A wonderful ‘terroir’ (some say better than neighbours Las Cases and Barton), but surely shot.

“The wine was poised, elegant, an extremely fine-boned Cabernet, with not an ounce of fat”

Not a bit of it. Think of an elderly, exquisitely dressed gentleman, immaculately tailored, beautifully polished brown brogues and probably accessorised with an ivory-topped cane. The wine was poised, elegant, an extremely fine-boned Cabernet, with not an ounce of fat. And, most interestingly, 11.5% alcohol. Wow, we thought, properly old school, they don’t make ’em like that anymore.