“It’s called wine” said O’Brien with a faint smile “You will have read about it in books, no doubt” Moulin Touchais (1984) George Orwell special edition.

It's not often that I get to drink wine that's older than me, and even rarer that I get a bottle with a quote from one of my favourite authors on it, but alas, this was faulty with VA. I don't know whether it was an overarching fault with the vintage or if I just got a flawed bottle. Definitely picking up vinegar and boot polish/glue. Not working too hard to redeem the bad reputation of the dreadful 1984 vintage across Europe.

Have left the rest of it in the fridge overnight, hoping that it blows away and leaves a fruitier wine behind. Will comment below if it improves.

If it had cost significantly less than the £43 I paid for it at TWS in September, I might have just written it off as a novelty, but at that price I do expect the bottles not to be faulty! Especially annoying as I'd opened it as a birthday treat with specially ordered foie gras, which is a ballache to get hold of here in the UK.

Cork was natural, fairly short, and didn't look anywhere near 40 years old, so I suspect that this was either bottled recently or recorked. It's a recent release so I would have hoped they'd do some QC beforehand: maybe I just got unlucky.