My first encounter with a Marc Bredif Vouvray was when I sold a 1959 Magnum at Vinnies Restaurant (Auckland). It would have been in the early 1990s. I didn't really know the style at all, and it wasn't the kind of wine that was sampled to you by a wine 'rep'.
The bouquet was explosive - unique - an intense mineral/soil fragrance that was mesmerizing. There was a honeyed, complex, baked yellow apple and quince fragrance. I was so captured by the smell that I couldn't wait to serve it to the guests and observe their reactions.
I guess my excitement in serving the wine that the guests offered me a glass as well. When I got the chance to try the wine - it was one of the most memorable wine experiences I can remember.
Just recently on May 13th - friend Simon Woolley, my wife Janet and I shared a bottle of the 1988 (thank you Simon).
On the nose the wine that brought back some of those original memories of the 1959. This wine was a little more honeyed, but immensly mineral with a soft wet chalk aroma, wet wool and apple flavors. The acidity was medium and body medium+. The finish was incredibly long with many of the aromas and flavors returning in waves - just fantastic.
Cameron - I have been given a bottle of 1988 Marc Bredif Vouvray as a gift which I am delighted to have read your description above. If you were going to have the wine would you enjoy it by itself or with a meal? If with a meal, what do you think would best match this wine?
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Lachlan Callander