Another experiment with surpising results

Every now and then, you learn something new about a wine you thought you knew and, maybe, an experiment pays off. I had more or less given up on the 1996 and 1997 Clos du Papillon years back after they seemed to go into an oxidized spiral. I decided to let a couple of bottles sit just to see what would happen.

1997 Domaine des Baumard Savennières Clos du Papillon
The first thing to grab me was the color, a light yellow tinged white rather than a golden color. The nose was full of pretty flowers and wet stones. What was piercing intensity as a young wine, was lithe grace as an older wine. On the palate, it was organized, but the big structure had faded to a latticework of slender, interconnected elements. The wine was lively on the palate, but in a mature wine way, not an intense puckering way. This is exactly how I had hoped these wines would turn out, but they never looked like they would get here. Maybe it was just a good bottle. Maybe as soon as they started showing weird, I should have hid all of my bottles. Anyway, as these things tend to work out, this was my last bottle. If you have any, I strongly encourage you to dip in.