Digging in the cellar: Pommery NV from the 60s

Admittedly I’ve not had the greatest luck with goodies from the cellar lately, with more misses than hits. Maybe I’m cursed.

Regardless, today I’m kicking off a little series of posts featuring wines from my own cellar (or friends cellars). Wines that I would want to cellar (or someone else would want too).

What’s always interesting to me about aged wines like these is the little value surprises. Like mega dollar reds that fail to live up to expectations. Or budget drinks that far outshine their price point, both of which prove that the relationship between price and quality is definitely not linear.

For a first dip out of the cellar then, let it be a bottle of Pommery NV from the 60s. I can’t tell you much about what was in the bottle, but this was bought by my partner’s family while in Burgundy late 2016 (so not from my cellar). From what I can gather the bottle comes from midway through the 60s and has been kept in a quality, cool French cellar.

In many ways this is a joy purely for the curio factor. But it’s more than that. The levels looked good, though hard to tell with Champagne. Golden yellow in colour, it smells old (no surprises). That means a madeirised and heavily developed nose of golden toast, honey, aldehyde and tangerine. You always find yourself looking for fruit in old wines like this, and its something of a fight with the aldehyde and development. Still, there’s plenty of orange honey flavour and the palate itself is still holding together. There’s acidity and a remnant leesy richness that convinces you to have another glass.

Again, something of a curio, but no questioning that this is still drinkable. A NV Champagne, still kicking on 50+ years later? Incredible.