Familial Farce

The weekend has been a long one full of family celebrations. The Nippy-Nephew was marrying the Lovely Lisa, and there was plenty of family catch-ups, fun and mirth. Lots of good wines were supped on, of course, but they were not the focus. Rather, it was the nuptials.
As a bit of a joke, we found some old wines that were the birth year of the newly married couple, and some of their friends. They were opened in the spirit of fun, and since the family are all reasonably wine proficient, the exercise was a farce.
It was a vertical line-up of Montana Marlborough Cabernet Sauvignon. A farce in itself, and the wines of a family that represented a failed experiment. We all now know that unless Cabernet Sauvignon is grown in the most favourable of sites there, it is doomed to fail. The 1978 was dark, browned and somewhat grubby. There was a modicum of ripeness, but not sufficient to make it a decent drink, even though the body and texture was OK. Just a touch of acidity poked out. It was a hot year, and it had the potential to be positive. Then the 1979, light and fading mahogany colour, weedy and sappy, with aged, savoury flavours, quite thin and tart. The acidity was excessive. A lesser year, and it showed. Mildly preferable was the 1980. At the time, a better vintage, but we now can see it was only marginally so. Pepper and mint, with stalks and sap. A little, little more textured and bodied. But again the acidity was searing. 1981 was an average vintage, but this was the best of a baddish bunch. A little more colour and depth. Some fruit noticeable. Coolish Cabernet and bottle age. Actually clean, too. A liitle body and structure. I could drink it, but wouldn't.
The young family members knew not to drink these too. We have moved on a long way since then. 30 years ago, these wine were state-of-art commercial. Oh well.....