This is NOT Jaboulet's Crozes-Hermitage Thalabert 1978, a legendary wine from a great Rhone vintage, but rather Jaboulet's regular bottling of Crozes-Hermitage. That was my first year buying wine, and the Thalabert was sold out. But the staff at Village Corner in Ann Arbor highly recommended this wine, priced at about $5 a bottle. I bought a few bottles, then a case and later went back for two more cases. When it was young, one critic described it as a "summer pudding" delight--fresh fruit galore. I had one bottle left in the cellar, and, as I approach my 83rd birthday, chose to experience maturity in a bottle.
Mature, amber/brickish tones. Mute at first but gradually starts to develop a mature bouquet. Sweet Syrah fruit, red and black berries, cassis, leather and Asian spices. Very savory, almost salty flavors. Clings to the surfaces of the mouth with exotic flavors. Certainly not as good as any of the Thalaberts from the 1980s and not as hedonistic as it was in the early 1980s, but a wine that has aged well over 40-plus years.
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