Splashed from the bottle into a glass for an initial taste, then decanted and enjoyed from the one-hour mark for the rest of the evening onwards.
Poured a lovely burgundy color with mildly bricked highlights. Some wateriness at the rim, as expected.
The aroma was outrageous — it leapt out of the bottle even before I decanted the wine. Massive morello cherry and plum, followed by moss, Sichuan pepper, tarragon, and a classic graphite note. Shockingly juicy, with “green” highlights that soon faded.
My initial taste, poured straight from the bottle, revealed still tight, rigid tannins; this needed time to open up. But when it did, it was a delight, with flavors of mulberry, cassis, olive, salted licorice, and almond. Early on in the evening, this showed high, electric acidity, which mellowed as the tannins continued to fade and the softer, rounder fruit flavors became more prominent.
As a sub-$100, 40-year-old bottle from a declassified estate (since the mid-’00s, the grapes have been used as part of the blend for Chateau la Dauphine), I wasn’t expecting much. But this was surprisingly alive, if missing a little bit of the richness and depth of its more famous 1982 brethren. All in all, however, it was proper claret — a real pleasure, and still holding up today.
1 Comment
Splashed from the bottle into a glass for an initial taste, then decanted and enjoyed from the one-hour mark for the rest of the evening onwards.
Poured a lovely burgundy color with mildly bricked highlights. Some wateriness at the rim, as expected.
The aroma was outrageous — it leapt out of the bottle even before I decanted the wine. Massive morello cherry and plum, followed by moss, Sichuan pepper, tarragon, and a classic graphite note. Shockingly juicy, with “green” highlights that soon faded.
My initial taste, poured straight from the bottle, revealed still tight, rigid tannins; this needed time to open up. But when it did, it was a delight, with flavors of mulberry, cassis, olive, salted licorice, and almond. Early on in the evening, this showed high, electric acidity, which mellowed as the tannins continued to fade and the softer, rounder fruit flavors became more prominent.
As a sub-$100, 40-year-old bottle from a declassified estate (since the mid-’00s, the grapes have been used as part of the blend for Chateau la Dauphine), I wasn’t expecting much. But this was surprisingly alive, if missing a little bit of the richness and depth of its more famous 1982 brethren. All in all, however, it was proper claret — a real pleasure, and still holding up today.