Sometimes you get a result

[uncle tom]

..and sometimes you don't!

But this is one of the happier stories.

A mixed auction lot, typical of house clearance, with a few interesting bottles, and several that were patently rubbish - cupboard clearance..

Included in the listing of this lot were two bottles described as simply 'Chateauneuf-du-pape 1981'

Fine. '81 was a pretty rubbish year for many wines, and a quick check of the Decanter site confirms that CDP's were not an exception.

I priced them as spare baggage, of no value, yet won the lot.

After collecting the bottles, I dumped them in the cellar and forgot about them - I didn't check out the producer's name on the label.

I spied them a couple of days ago, and wanting a casual quaff last night (while anticipating the need for a little vino in the cooking in the near term) I thought I'd open a lame duck bottle that might be just about drinkable, but could be dumped without concern.

For the first time I looked at the label properly. It was from a producer called Grand Tinel - maybe I should know them, but I've really not done my homework on French wines other than Bordeaux.

Well, it was a seriously good wine. A tad mono-dimensional, but that's splitting hairs...

Seems Tinel is a well regarded (if not top flight) producer. Pity I've only got one more bottle, but, there we go!

Tom

[jdaw1]

Hurray for getting lucky.