1947 - a magically faulty vintage
On a Saturday in September 2017 I was a guest at, yet again, one of the greatest wine dinners I have had the pleasure to enjoy for the last thirtyfive years or so. Thirty wines from 1947.
The host, Robert Langer, is the same generous wine lover who organised a splendid dinner with the top 1961s a year ago. He also takes great care when sourcing his bottles which explains the splendid condition of the wines we were served. The venue was again Restaurant Königshof in Munich. Their chef, Martin Fauster, is one of Europes best in matching food to great wines. The service was perfect with their sommelier, Stephane Thuriot, not only overlooking everything but also able to coach old corks out of bottles like no one else I know.
I had organised a major tasting of wines from 1947 together with Dr. Peter Baumann in Linz Austria in 1992 so it was interesting to see how the wines had developed over a quarter of a century.
The problem of acquiring well stored bottles was difficult then and must have been much more so now. So, I was a bit apprehensive before the tasting fearing that a number of wines would be at the end of their lives. This was not at all so, most wines were at their very best with many still having a few years reserve. I dug out my tasting notes from the 1992 tasting and was surprised how similar they were to the ones 25 years later, it was as though the wines hadn't aged at all in all these years.
1947 belongs to the small group of legendary Bordeaux vintages from the 20th century together with 1928, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1959, 1961, 1982 and 1990.
It is a vintage that was marked by a very hot August and September. The grapes were harvested in a heatwave with a sugar content no one knew how to handle at the time. There were no temperature controlled fermentation vats nor cultivated yeasts that could cope with such ripe grapes. This led to many wines showing volatile acidity that would become more obvious as the wines aged. Many wines also show much more residual sugar than any respectable cellarmaster would allow now.
The wines from Médoc have not aged as well as the wines from the right bank as a whole. There are however two wines from Médoc that stands out from all the rest - Mouton and Margaux.
The Mouton is a fantastic wine (we had a perfect magnum at the Langer tasting) - on par with the wonderful 1949 and maybe very close to the great 1945. I was once told at a dinner at Mouton by their director that they had blocks of ice delivered from Bordeaux to be put into the fermentation vats to cool the must in 1947. Château Margaux made one of their best wines ever in 1947. I have often had this wine both château bottled and the bottlings from van-der-Meulen. To me both are equally good, the van-der-Meulen bottling being a touch sweeter in Munich. Latour and Lafite are both quite disappointing in this vintage. Palmer and Calon Ségur are two of the better Médocs and are still drinking well out of well stored bottles.
Graves produced some fine wines - La Mission Haut Brion and La Tour Haut Brion are both very good. I only just preferred the La Tour Haut Brion to La Mission on both occasions. The Haut Brion shows quite a bit of volatile acidity and is not a success for the vintage.
There are two wines from Pomerol that stand out - Pétrus and Lafleur.
I have unfortunately had the experience of tasting faked bottles of Pétrus more than once and was very happy to be able to drink two bottles that, in my opinion, were the real stuff at Langers dinner. The château bottling was very powerful and concentrated whereas the van-der-Meulen bottling was sweeter and showed a bit more age. Both very good.
Château Lafleur 1947 is one of the rarest and also most faked wines of all. I had searched for a bottle for the 1992 tasting for three years and never saw a bottle. My luck changed as I ran in to John Avery whose father Ronald Avery had imported this wine to England for his company, Avery's of Bristol. Only five magnums were bottled according to the château and we were having one of these next to magnums of Cheval Blanc and Figeac at a dinner the evening before the tasting in 1992. It was such an amazing wine that John Avery invited us all to join him in Bristol the following spring to open his last remaining magnum. The Lafleur in Munich was very good and since it was négociant bottled it may explain it being slightly different from the wine I remember.
St Emilion produced a number of very good wines, some that I remember with fondness are Figeac and Canon. But here one wine stands out - Cheval Blanc.
1947 Château Cheval Blanc is rightly a legend and a living one at that. It is however also a wine that would be classed as faulty by todays standard. Volatile acidity and residual sugar - enough to fire any winemaker producing such a wine. Thankfully, Cheval Blanc produced a large harvest in 1947, more than the double of the 1945 vintage. I have therefore had the pleasure of drinking this giant of a wine on more than 30 occasions over the last thirty years. With the exception of some poor négociant bottlings this has always been a stunning experience and a wine always recognisable in its unique style. It bowls you over with its sweetness, voluptousness and richness.
At the Munich tasting we were served five different bottles of 1947 Cheval Blanc - could paradise be better than this? First a Calvet bottling that showed quite hard tannins and little of the sweetness of the other bottles. Van-der-Meulen bottlings are the exception to other négociant bottlings as they are extremely good and often equal to the château bottlings in its ability to amaze. The bottle here was absolutely lovely. The third bottle was château bottled with the stamp of Nicolas on the label - possibly recorked. Again a fantastic bottle. The fourth bottle was also château bottled but with its original cork. This was the favourite of mine - perfection and spellbinding! This was rounded off with a magnum in great condition. Very, very good but not quite as excuberant as the wine before.
By the time we arrived to the Sauternes I was not really able to concentrate and make legible notes any more. It was just not possible to spit or leave empty glasses of these amazing wines.