At The Wine Show Jo’burg ’09 Sommellier Jorg Pfutzner led a very special tasting of 9 iconic wines dating back to 1909 and taking in each decade until 1999. Pieter de Klerk was there and tells us what its like to drink 90 year-old wine.

Finally, after perpetually salivating in anticipation for a month like a rabid werewolf, I was sitting in front of some pretty fancy glasses with sommelier Jörg Pfützner pouring Louis Roederer Cristal 1999 into my very happy glass. Talk about a flying start! At this stage the 45% Chardonnay still dominates the 55% Pinot Noir, but this is bound to change as this awesome wine moves towards full maturity. Superbly balanced, the wine bristled with minerality and a sturdy natural acid: “She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie… Champagne!” (with apologies to J.J.Cale and Eric Clapton).

Already lyrical about the champagne, my next fancy glass was invaded by proof that Burgundy has no equal when it comes to chardonnay: Baron Thenard Le Montrachet 1969. Impossibly youthful in almost all respects, mind-conjestingly complex, soft like mother’s milk and, just when I thought it couldn’t get better, it improved in the glass. During this period of improvement I was already sampling 30-year old riesling from fancy glass number three, courtesy of a Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr 1979. Still drinking superbly, it had bright acid and clean, lip-smacking candy-fruits, with gentle sugar. Everyone loved it!

Even with young wines every bottle is an individual, which means the disappointment of the unavoidable bad apples contribute to the exhilaration of the exceptional ones.

A pity still, when I found the Corton Hotel St. Petersburg 1919 (according to Jörg the only red Grand Cru in the Côte du Beaune) to be bacterially infected. Tasters were divided, but for me the nose and palate confirmed what the tell-tale milky appearance promised - I guess I’ll never know if a healthy bottle would have stood the considerable test of time… Still, it’s an incredibly surreal experience to let a 90-year old wine become part of your body, regardless of the taste… To a lesser degree – and for slightly different reasons – the particular bottles we had of the iconic Chateaux Cos d’Estournel 1929 and Kanonkop Pinotage 1989 also didn’t quite stand the test of time.

This meant, of course, that the exhilaration of the exceptional I’ve referred to earlier was bound to be just around the corner. Into the glorious limelight stepped our Spanish saviour – a Gran Reserva Rioja with a personality big enough to rival its name: Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta Castillo Ygay 1959. After lying for two decades in American oak and a further three in the bottle, this one was determined to stand up proudly, given half a chance. Despite an orange-brick colour and bottle-aged, rustic nose, it was balanced and alive with spices and savoury dried fruits.

After basking in Rioja heaven, we turned to the sweet stuff. In 1949, just after World War II, some farm workers at La Tour Blanche harvested sweet, rotten grapes in Sauternes, France. Now, sixty years later, the resulting gold-green wine was virtually staining our glasses as we swirled it here in Africa. Almost hypnotized by the sight, we delved into the gorgeous, nutty nose, laced with more botrytis than one would expect from the driest vintage in Sauternes since 1893. It still had freshness, with lime, raisins and bottle age and finished ethereally, elegant and sweet.

Somewhere in a cliffside in the Ukraine, you’ll find a huge cellar with sweet fortified wines from what were originally the Tsar’s vineyards in Crimea. Only in the Gorbachev era was the Western World introduced to its hidden treasures and from its depths to our glasses came a Massandra Gurzuf Rose Muscat 1939. From a pink-skinned muscat clone, it has now turned into a light yellow-green toffee colour. The opulent nose was very grapey and fruity and some bottle age was filled out with beguiling turkish delight and toffee. The taste can only be described as liquid heaven!

As Jörg finished his magnificently researched slide show of the wines, I was perfectly ready to take the perpetual aftertaste of the last wine with me into the afterlife. However, I was soon brought back to earth by a century-old brandy in my glass. That’s not a massive typo – I’m talking about the Baron de Sigognac 1909 from Armagnac. Actually, although made from century-old grapes and thus chronologically as old, brandy does not age once bottled. Thus, being bottled in 1988 after spending a mere 79 years in barrels, it’s physiologically only 79 years old. I’ll avoid pointing out all the specific flavours and suffice to say it was fresh, subtle, gorgeously soft and waltzing with angel’s feet through all my senses – the best brandy I’ve had by far!

Thanks to the organisers of The Jo’Burg Wine Show. Wine sure is the king of drinks! .... meet the team