A bottle of 2011 Mercurey 1er Cru Les Nauges from Paul Jacqueson with delicious homemade beefburger last night, prepared by a friend and beautifully cooked by her nephew.
I sold it to her late husband years ago. The cellar is good, but slightly on the warm side. I brought the wine up a couple of weeks ago for another dinner party, and it was left over. I found it last night sitting on the kitchen table next to the range, capsule off, and cork seeping due to the heat. I stuffed it into the freezer for 15 minutes. The cork was fine, the wine so fresh and lovely, still amazingly youthful, even some residual primary (new oak) notes, no browning in the colour at all.
Cellars are funny old things, and wine copes very well even if the temp is a little too high. I'm consistently amazed at how well even relatively old wines show from this one. I've had 20 year old claret that was still way too young (2000 Lynch-Bages, needed anothr 20 years), but never anything tired or out of condition.
