Poetic License: Siran 1920-1929

BY NEAL MARTIN | OCTOBER 10, 2023

The invitation came from Margaux: 

To taste wines made a century ago. 

Siran was the destination, 

For this one-off dégustation. 

Eight bottles fetched from their cellar,

Mirrors of that season’s weather. 

Nineteen-twenty to twenty-nine 

Of time-bending Bordeaux wine.

Just two years were MIA,

Never made? Who can say?

Alive or dead? Dry or spry?

I’d soon found out with Edouard Miailhe.

The wines are poured one by one,

Each demanding full attention.

Never still. Always changing. 

In the glass, ever-mutating. 

Wines like these evoke emotion,

Claret maturing in slow motion.

It seemed immoral, against the law, 

To give each wine a banal score

And though words convey my feelings here,  

Numbers make their quality clear. 

I hope, dear reader, you don’t mind,

I wrote this piece with words that rhyme.

But I hope, by now, that you’ve divined,

This special night was one of a kind.

© 2023, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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