Wine enthusiasts choose restaurants according to the wine menu. They prefer places where wines are part of the restaurant’s identity and where there is a passionate and talented sommelier to tell them the wine’s story.

Obviously, the fine menu and food pairing will be sublimate by the wines and vice-versa.

That’s how Kay got into the habit of choosing the places he went to. This time it was in Florence, Italy. The wine cellar was huge, the visit revealed vintage treasures, Italian wines but also French wines such as Bordeaux.

He chose a Château Lafite Rothschild 1989.  A vintage that was harvested early, grapes were ripe and colourful.

It is a wine aged for about twenty months in new barrels, soaked by the young wood, which is why it is important to choose mature vintages.

The sommelier decanted the wine by candlelight, a finesse and elegant technique to delight every sense. A dark colour appears in the decanter. The wine has very few orange reflections, the nose reveals powerful aromatic and woody notes. Tannins hit the palate, the finesse and the notes of blackcurrant as well as pine are predominant. The aroma is fantastic, but the structure is still too dense. The wine is a little too young.

However, the exercise was interesting, analysing one by one every component to state that yes, this wine will age well in an exquisite balance.