Grosperrin x Aficionados Michaud 37 year 1985 (49%)

N: cherrywood, sappy but drying cherry-raspberry fruit, woody spice, plenty of rancio for its age, a bit of buttered pastry dough on the verge of burned

P: in the palate this moves a step toward sweet spice, sweeter than the Bellair, again with a more vinous (and just barely lactic) red fruit compared to the other’s black, and cherrywood instead of its mahogany, but licorice too and a drying tarry-toasted bitterness too, especially on the finish

86

Darroze (Domaine de Bellair) 1981 (54%)

N: stylistically a not so distant relative of the Michaud, more licorice and black plum here and marginally darker wood, a hint of new tire rubber, less red and vinous…there’s spice but it’s more shy

P: licorice and dark plum, good rancio, some new leather and new tire, varnished old wood, there’s some dark spice (anise, cinnamon stick) buried in there. A hint of brown (very brown) butter. Fairly dry and wood-driven but not to an extreme. Doesn’t take water terribly well, dulls the palate without adding anything

85