Chateau Fourcas Hosten Listrac Medoc, 1981

I remember this as a lush Cabernet-dominant Bordeaux in the early- to mid-1990s. But the bottle I opened a couple of months ago indicated to me that it is now a wine to drink up.

The color is a medium ruby with bricking at the rim; showing its age but not decrepit. I smell currants, cherries, cassis, dried flowers and a medicinal whiff that quickly blows away. On the palate, it's the same. Medium bodied, no hard edges and a focus on Merlot tea and cherries rather than Cabernet currant. It's good mature Bordeaux with decent concentration and a medium long finish. The price tag says $9.95, pretty good value for a wine capable of holding on for 30 years. Even better: the current vintage (2010) of Fourcas Hosten sells for only about $20.