Wine goes from ugly duckling to fine feather

I EXPECT that most of us are familiar with Hans Christian Anderson's tale, The Ugly Duckling, in which an ugly duckling, born into a duck family, and was so ugly at birth that other ducks ostracised him. Until the day when three beautiful swans came swimming by and when they saw him they swam "round the newcomer, and stroked his neck with their beaks" to welcome this beautiful newcomer! It was then that he, looking at his reflection in the water, realised that he was also a beautiful swan.

I was reminded of this tale at dinner last week when I took my first sip of Vieux Chateau Certan 2007. With that first sip I stopped short and looked again at the label to confirm that the vintage was indeed 2007.

Vieux Chateau Certan 2007