TN: CdP Night at the "In DC's": 1989 Beaucastel

[Tom In DC]

This bottling has a reputation here in the States of being either a) great, or b) damaged in shipping. Looking at this "purchased on release, but not inspected until years later" bottle, I wasn't expecting much -- signs of leakage at the capsule, a bit of wine stain on the label, and much of the inside of the bottle coated. When opened a couple of hours before dinner, the cork seemed intact -- maybe the leakage occurred during bottling? -- and a nice, complex aroma came from the bottle. I decanted the bottle just before dinner to get the wine off of a huge amount of sediment, and found the deep, dark color of a much younger wine. This was delicious! Gail's comments were along the lines of "So balanced" and "So rich", and I had to agree. This was an example of DavidG's comment in another thread about CdP having balance out in the corners of the graph, because this was big and perfectly balanced at the same time.

Thanks to Harry and Jim for providing the impetus to pop this wonderful bottle!

[JimHow]

Thanks for the report, Tom. This wine will always have a place in the heart of BWEers. It was one of the wines tasted blind at the original Chicago '01 blind tasting, stuck in there as a ringer along with the '89 Lynch, '89 Purple Baron, '82 GPL, '73 Petrus, and '90 Lagrange. At first, everyone commented on how stinky and unusual the nose was, and rated it low. As it evolved with air, though, the consensus changed 180 degrees. By evening's end I was sitting next to Roberto and he was in a state of nirvana over the wine.

[HarryKaris]

Thanks for the note Tom. One of my all time favorite CdP's. Many Bordeaux characteristics in this wine. Lucky me, I never had a bad bottle.
Happy for you, you got a good bottle. Apparently many bottles were transported over the ocean during summer period and got heat damaged.......

So Roberto liked the wine too Jim......!!!!

CdP-Harry

[DavidG]

Probably my favorite vintage of one of my favorite CduPs. Thanks for the note - my mouth waters just reading about it. I've been lucky not to have experienced any leakers.

[Rick]

Tom
nice report....when this wine is on it is difficult to get much better

I have 2 mags left for some respectful occasion

rick

[Claret]

That 89 can be a reference settling wine, if one has a pristine bottle. I drank a leaker young that was fine, but I was floored by an initially bretty bottle that spewed barnyard but turned into a majestic example of Beaucastel with power, balance and depth. That was about 7 years ago at Eleven Madison Park.

I have one left, and I doubt that it will make it to the end of the year.

[Comte Flaneur]

Thanks for note Tom...the '89 Beau' is the best CNDP I have ever drunk by a country mile...(it would definitely rank in my top 100 wines, maybe even top 50). I have one bottle of a case of the 1990 left, and while it has an incredible nose to die for, it is a let down on the finish, and way behind the 1989. However I maintain high hopes for my cases of 1998 and 2001...the 1999 is poor, or not currently drinking well.

[JimHow]

I have two bottles of the 1998, one bottle of the 2000, and one half bottle of the 2005, I wonder when I should think about drinking them?