Château MARCELIN LAFFITTE 1921
A precious witness to the sweet-wine history of the Garonne’s right bank, Château Marcelin Laffitte stands in the tradition of Sainte-Croix-du-Mont estates: limestone slopes overlooking the Garonne, late harvests, and know-how devoted to botrytized wines that are at once rich, luminous and slender.
Vintage 1921:
A legendary year for Bordeaux sweet wines, 1921 combined high ripeness and exemplary concentration. The late-season conditions favoured abundant noble rot, yielding dense yet surprisingly balanced musts. A century later, the best bottles combine depth, residual freshness and rare tertiary nobility.
Amber to mahogany, bright. Complex, time-worn nose: candied orange peel, dried apricot, marmalade, waxy honey, saffron, black tea, a hint of rancio and furniture wax. Unctuous without heaviness on the palate, carried by a chalky (tuffeau-like) acidity that tautens the wine and prolongs a very persistent finish of light caramel, blond tobacco and candied fruit. Note: for a centenarian wine, bottle variation (fill level, cork condition, storage) is natural and part of the charm. Serve chilled but not cold (11–12 °C). Gentle decanting (10–15 min) may help release the bouquet. Pairings: pan-seared foie gras, blue cheeses (Roquefort, Stilton), roast poultry with caramelised pan juices, pastries with yellow fruits, tarte Tatin, roasted pineapple; also superb as a meditation wine.
A heritage bottle from Sainte-Croix-du-Mont, neighbour to Sauternes and Barsac, illustrating the classicism of great interwar-period Bordeaux sweet wines.
Grape varieties: Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle.
