My FIL owned fine dining French restaurants for 50 years and amassed a collection worthy of being envied. But having come from nothing in his childhood he tended to favor deals and cheaper stuff and even though he knows and has drunk plenty of grail wines, he never feels like he should drink the good stuff. Having sold his last restaurant a few years ago, and excluding most of the wine from sale, we racked it all in his basement. I’ve spent several years twisting his arm to drink even the “middle of the road” wines like various cali cabs which are not my thing, a ‘68 taurasi—the greatest I’ve ever had, a haut brion and more that I can’t remember.

Truth be told, this bottle was trash when it came home from the restaurant 3 years ago. It has great ullage, but the cork was dry snd molded. Plastic overwhelmed the nose and even 24 hours in a decanter couldn’t make it bearable.

Don’t let this happen to you!