You are invited to submit to the York Chancellery tasting notes on bottles of Saint-Emilion which you have particularly enjoyed for inclusion in these pages.

The Chancellor will begin with a bottle of 1947 Balestard la Tonnelle:
The cork was showing its age but, fortunately, was solid for the last 3 or 4 mm. The initial nose was a little musty but some, very pleasing, bouquet developed on it quite soon when I decanted it, very gently, into a narrow decanter immediately before serving. I had not intended to do so but the first sip poured clearly showed that, not only would it stand decanting, but was likely to benefit from it.
The colour can be seen in the photographs and was in reality quite amazingly good, a far deeper red than I had expected, with only a little brick red to brown on the rim and with only a very small clear edge to the rim − characteristic of wine ready to drink rather than that which was in any way over the top.
The wine was, both at first and throughout, far better in the mouth than was promised on the nose even after the bouquet developed. The texture was pure silk rather than the soft velvet which I associate with other fine old wines I have drunk. On the palate it was quite dry in the middle but very well rounded. It was in length of flavour and after taste that it was so remarkable. Rich ripe fruit seemed to burst into the mouth as the wine was swallowed and it lingered powerfully for a full five minutes or so, coating the whole palate with a much fuller flavour that had been initially present with the wine still in the mouth.
This was a bottle which showed why 1947 was such a great vintage − I only wished that I had had a magnum of it.
Jacques Capdemourlin had told me we would have a taste of paradise in this bottle - he was right.

Balestard la Tonnelle 1947	The Jurade's Great Seal marks its approval
Decanted	Poured

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