Tasting notes Serge Valentin: 92 points

I did try a 1988 by Domaine de Baraillon, and it was great (WF 87).

Colour: deep amber.

Nose: please have a seat, this is great. Imagine some kind of cocktail made by the maddest mixologist (they’re all mad anyway, aren’t they), with puréed roasted chestnuts, lapsang souchong, cigar ashes, Grisons meat, the driest manzanilla, garden peat, black volcanic earth, bits of grilled cured ham (what our Anglo-Saxon friends call bacon, I suppose), very old muscat wine that went bone dry, fern… All this is just wonderful, and utterly and plainly malternative, I have to say.

Mouth: s’il vous plaît appelez la brigade anti-maltopornographique, merci beaucoup. Shouldn’t I rather review my Cognacs and Armagnacs in French? What do you say? Okay, okay… But this is stunning, tarry, dry, avoiding any possible pitfalls, including any excessive prunes or raisins. Wonderful smoky earthiness, and a palate that is wholly tertiary. Tiny herbs, fern, mushrooms, cocoa, moss, bacon, and a funny lactic side that’s anything but embarrassing.

Finish: long, with the oranges chiming in, right on time. And cocoa in the aftertaste.

Comments: I adored this one. Same category as that of the greatest Springbanks or Clynelishes. Indeed, proper spirits.