Checking in on some 1994 Bordeaux

[Comte Flaneur]

There were nine of us who gathered at 28-50 restaurant in central London last night to try some 1994 Bordeaux with a few extras thrown in.

Starters

Jacquesson Cuvee 735

Really smooth, classy champagne, with brioche notes

Haart Goldtropfchen Auslese 1994

Fresh, levitating; beguiling petrol and limey notes; fabulous acidic cut and balance.

Flight one

Chateau Gazin

Notes of cigarette ash and tobacco, smokey, earthy and minerally; this wine has an endearing rustic quality, it is not smooth or refined – the tannins are still quite elevated - but really works in a bumptious kind of way. It is a really delicious mature Pomerol. Like rolling around in the hay. Deservedly very popular on the table and wine of the flight for the group.

Chateau L’Eglise Clinet

I have never had a great bottle of this. It is fully mature and quite delicious, but a little wobbly. Drink up.

Chateau Angelus

A good bottle, better than the one we had the other night. Tapenade, olive, tobacco notes. Cedar and dark chocolate. Big voluminous and tannic, but lacks a bit of flamboyance and personality, compared to say the stupendous 1989. Did the wine maker try too hard? A wine with an identity crisis perhaps? Where is it going and how does it fit in?

Flight two

Chateau Cos D’Estournel

A lot of lead pencil, minerals, herbs, green pepper and leafiness. A stern tannic, metallic streak pervades this wine. It is mean and green and clearly better with food. I think it will be better in 5-10 years when it mellows, assuming the modest fruit holds up. But I doubt I could ever love this wine.

Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste

Slow out of the blocks this was initially curmudgeonly and tannic, but it put on weight and gathered momentum as it unfurled its wares. Quintessentially classic Pauillac. A super wine and voted wine of the flight.

Chateau Pontet Canet

This was delicious from the start. Still some tannic structure, and still in some sense quite stern, but in the perfect place now, and whereas the GPL can still improve this wine now needs drinking up. Delicious old style claret.

Flight three

Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou

Bright colour, super vibrant nose of blackcurrant, cedar, lead pencil, underbrush; chewy and herby...somewhat angular and not mouth filling on the palate but it has decent persistence. Very nice wine, still quite tannic and on the young side. Suave and refined. But tries a little bit too hard?

Chateau Leoville Barton

A nice attack and a wine which is converging on full maturity...cedar, tobacco, herbs and minerals on the attack...this wine was marred by a sour finish suggesting the grapes were picked too early.

Chateau Leoville Lascases

A very good, classic and delicious LLC, dominated by pencil lead notes, but with fine balance. This wine is absolutely ready and delicious. Unlike the Ducru it does not try too hard. For me easily the wine of the flight. For LLC fans this is a wine to seek out because it is fully mature delicious and relatively cheap. Wine of the flight, just edging out Barton.

Flight four

Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Served a little warm, this was nevertheless a very good showing for the Prince of Darkness, which just keeps on getting better and better every time I try it, even if it is incrementally so. This wine is now in its drinking window, but can still improve and will last for decades. Similar to the outstanding 1988 Mouton.

Chateau La Mission Haut Brion

This was savoury and delicious but perhaps a bit one-dimensional and disappointing for a La Mission Haut Brion? Of course it is not in the same league as the 1989, but this is a wine you can quaff with great pleasure whilst waiting for your 1989s to mature.

Neal's mystery wine

Neal’s mystery wine was the smoothest wine of the night. It was most refined and silky and had an ethereal bouquet of violets and white flowers. It was just simply fabulous and understated. I guessed Chateau Margaux - correctly for once. It reminded me of the 1979. It had a touch of class none of the other wines could match.


Desserts

Chateau Rieussec 1998 – no notes

Fonseca 1994 – no notes


My wine of the night was Margaux...though Jeremy’s auslese was arguably even better.

Tying for second would be Mouton and LLC, whilst Gazin, GPL and Pontet Canet were all excellent.

Angelus and Ducru tried too hard, while Barton and L’Eglise Clinet weren’t quite right.

La Mission was a delicious quaffer but hardly up to the high standards one expects from this estate. But I am going to keep ‘em and quaff ‘em. The Cos will always be a curmudgeon and is a wine for masochists.

As far as the group was concerned the votes were quite evenly split.

The poll at the end of the evening after three of the group had left showed that Lascases was wine of the night, followed by Margaux, Gazin, GPL and Mouton.

What can one conclude from this?

1) 1994 is not a great vintage based on this tasting but it is not a horrible one either, not dissimilar to the 1988s but perhaps a somewhat lesser vintage.

2) It reminds me a bit of the 1975 vintage. In many wines the tannins are still elevated and quite obtrusive and may outlast the fruit.

3) There are some very good wines: Margaux, Mouton, LLC, Pontet Canet, GPL, Gazin among them and I am sure many we didn’t try. I didn’t show Latour because it is desperately and ridiculously backward. Montrose and Lafite are probably two wines that we didn’t try vying for wine of the vintage.

[RDD]

The 1994's got some initial high ratings and whih were later dropped. Hell, anything tasted great after 1992 and 1993.
Pomerol did fairly well and were bargains when inventory was cleared for 1995/1996.
I still a few that are nice to drink and you don't feel quilty at all.

[salilb]

Nice lineup and notes Ian.

I am a big fan of the vintage - not too badly priced in relation to most other Bordeaux (and I've found some nice bargains from 94 at auction), and as you say a very nice vintage for drinking while not profound. And as someone used to Loire Cab Franc, I don't have an issue with a little less ripeness/more greenness and firmer structure.

[DavidG]

Nice notes Ian. I also agree with Rob - there was pent-up demand after '91-'93. I've drunk or sold all my '94s except for a couple bottles of Clinet and L'Evangile.

[Comte Flaneur]

Agree Salil, I am keeping all my 94s except Angelus, which I am going to flog.
David L'Evangile was in the line up until the person bringing it annoyingly dropped out.
I would say if you like proper old style claret - as opposed to these modern creations (05s which everyone here seems to be obsessed about, f*ck me its tannic and totally unready to drink, what a surprise) - then wines like GPL and Gazin 94 are worth seeking out.

[JimHow]

l'Evangile ''94 was delicious, I drank about ten bottles of the stuff, you could get it for like $25 as recently as a decade ago.

[Blanquito]

Off vintages can be really surprising. I drank through most of a case of the 1992 Talbot that was incredibly excellent given the vintage (and was dumped for $12/bottle). It was pretty much over the hill by 2005, but it's brief peak from 2000-2002 was really, really good.

[Ramon_NYC]

Never thought of 1994 Bordeaux as off-vintage, not by my easy standards anyway. I have very very few, but still have enjoyed quite a bit (mostly courtesy of generosity of others).

Thanks for the notes, Ian. Glad to know that the 2004 Pontet Canet is drinking well. Let me know when you plan to make a trip back here.

[Blanquito]

You're correct, Ramon, 1994 is better than an "off" vintage, much better than 1991-93. That said, I haven't had many 1994 Bordeaux.

The hype machine did mostly pass over it, though. Parker, for example, gives the Medoc a vintage rating of 85pts in 1994 in contrast to 98pts for 1982, 98 pts for 19990, 92pts for 1995, 96pts for 1996, 96pts for 2000, 95pts for 2005, and 99pts for 2009 (his highest Medoc vintage rating ever and only the second 99pt vintage from the WA ever (St. Emilion also got 99pts in 2005)!!!! Let the hype grow ever higher!!!!).

FWIW, the Medoc in 1991-93 received 75pts, 79pts, and 78pts, respectively (https://www.erobertparker.com/newsearch ... hart2.aspx).

[Claret]

I was fortunate to taste the 1994's shortly after release. I generally liked them as I was able to look beyond the abundant tannins. I do not consider 1994 to be an off vintage, just more in an old school style that is less in vogue today.

The prices were reasonable and I bought a few mixed cases and have been dipping into them over the last few years. While I like the Right Bank a little bit better than the Left, there are some good Medoc’s, most recently Leoville Barton.

Pontet Canet was very tannic earlier this year. I am not sure if it will come around. A recent Montrose was still pretty stern but promising. I look forward to trying some LLC and Rauzan Segla next year.

[Comte Flaneur]

I agree with general sentiments expressed here; 1994 is more than just an off vintage. However, I really wanted to like these wines more than I actually did, so as to prove people wrong for ignoring or writing off the vintage. I was discussing this with Neal, who flew in from Bordeaux to attend this event, and he made the point that some of these wines have gone a bit flat as the primary fruit has faded and not been replaced by secondary aromas. The Margaux was the clear exception and is a fabulous wine. I don't think this will ever be a great vintage, but it will be a useful one. It could turn out like 1978, but I think stylistically it most resembles 1979. I am not planning on selling any apart from perhaps the Angelus.

[SF Ed]

1994 was the first vintage I cellared, and at the time my hope was that it would be like 1988. With the benefit of a number of years, that simply isn't the case. I have a bunch of 2nd growths (Las Cases, Cos, Montrose, Pichon Baron and Leoville Barton), and while the Montrose and Las Cases are decent, they are not nearly as good as their 1988 equivalents. On the right bank, things were better. I already have drunk all my 1994 Angelus, which I enjoyed, and my few 1994 Pomerols are tasty as well. Anyone who missed this - I can open a bunch of 1994 BDX any time anyone wants to get together in SF.

SF Ed