Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Jim started this in another thread, but I think it deserves its own place, so…

What is your perfect wine?
What is your desert island wine, a meteor is going to hit the earth, what are you going to uncork?
What is your MUST HAVE wine?
What is your 1989 Lynch Bages?

It’s a great question, with layers to unpeel, like an onion. Is it a wine you’ve had enough times and adored to claim as your “own”or one you’ve had maybe only once or twice but which has haunted you ever since? Or maybe it’s some legend you’ve never had but need to try before you die or at least before your taste buds shrivel up?

If it’s the first category, for me it’s either a vintage of Magdelaine or if based on number of sensational bottles, probably 82-86 era Beychevelle, or perhaps my beloved Pichon Lalande. But if the second category, I hate to admit it on some level, but those bottles of DRC that Ian has so generously shared have lingered and haunted in a way no other has, especially that 1990 Richebourg.

On another level, I have to admit my holy grail wine in probably an old school Right Banker, something like the 82 Cheval Blanc or the 90 Le Pin. These have seduced in a way few Left Banks can.

It's a great question, Patrick, but it gets watered down if folks start mentioning other wines in their answer.
Your initial thread specifically mentions six wines alone. That doesn't cut it. You are undermining your own challenge.

So...
For this to mean anything, BWEers have to be firm and mention only ONE wine in their answer....

So....
If you were on a desert island and you could drink only ONE wine. If an asteroid was going to hit the Earth tomorrow and we were going to experience a dinosaur-like extinction....

What ONE wine would you drink?

Not your five favorites....

You gotta pick ONE wine, or your answer gets deleted....

For me:

Without a blink of an eye, it is the 1989 Lynch Bages.
I've had this wine over 100 times, it has blown my mind almost every time.

1989 Lynch Bages is... My 1989 Lynch Bages.

1990 DRC Richebourg.

Lol… There you go.
I knew you could do it!
Oh man. Yeah…. Let the rapture begin.

1995 Lafite

1989 Haut Brion

Going with Blanquito’s prompt re the legend I’ve never tasted but yearn to have before I die:
1945 Mouton

1961 Trotanoy

1982 Mouton

1982 Pichon Lalande.

I would say 1982 Talbot but I've only had it once. Therefore I'll go with 1986 Rausan-Segla. Each time I've had it, I thought it was better than the previous bottle.

1986 Talbot

1961 Chateau Haut Brion

1989 Pichon Baron - have had this several times, but the best example/s of it I have had were mind-bendingly good.

1969 Romanee Conti.

1982 Château Mouton Rothschild.

Taste it 3 times, always great. Even next to the 1986, i preferred the 1982.

Wow! I can't argue with you, Mr. Maltais, the 1982 Mouton is epic.
But if an asteroid were going to hit the Earth, I would choose 1986.
That wine is probably #2 on my list, when I really think about it.
1986 Mouton is a 100+++ point wine.
1982 Mouton is a 100+ point wine.

Still waiting for Marcus to weigh in. He may not, as I am not sure whether he is a Bordeaux Wine Enthusiast...

Marcus just may not have his '89 Lynch, which is just kind of sad in a way, but such is life....

A matter of style and personal taste, Mr. Howaniec.

The 1982 was more complex and drinking better of the two to me. The 1986 was still great, in a heavier structured style, probably needing 10 more years...

But will the modern Moutons will turn like these 1982-1986?

Racer Chris wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 2:53 pm I would say 1982 Talbot but I've only had it once. Therefore I'll go with 1986 Rausan-Segla. Each time I've had it, I thought it was better than the previous bottle.

One of my standard tastings when I met a new client was to taste the Rauzan versus the Margaux 1986. Invariably the Rauzan won

Nicklasss wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:32 am 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild.

Taste it 3 times, always great. Even next to the 1986, i preferred the 1982.

Never had this wine. Had the transcendent 86 Mouton once, but never the 82. Maybe the 82 should be my don’t-look-up bottle?? (I’m cheating again).

stefan wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:07 pm 1969 Romanee Conti.

Thank god I wasn’t the only one to pick a burg!

82 Pichon Lalande, 83 Palmer, 75 La Mission Haut Brion are the top Bordeaux I have had that come to mind but if stranded on a dessert island and likely relegated to a seafood diet, I’ll be the 1st person to go with a white wine in a Raveneau MdT with about 2-3 years post release as those do it for me more so than the Grand Crus.

I'm not sure that I have found my 89 Lynch yet. I assume this is supposed to be a wine that you've had before? Preferably mutliple times?

I am going to go for 1990 Jasmin Cote Rotie

About 12 years ago MEK sourced a batch of these wines from 1980 to 1990. Just magical ethereal mature Cote Rotie, all of them. But the 1990 stood on a pinnacle all on its own.

Fast forward to June this year we had our annual Northern Rhone lunch, and someone was bringing a magnum of the 1990 Jasmin so I requested to be on his table.

Tragically the bottle was corked but I still could recognise the magic in this wine. I since sourced two bottles at an eye-watering price because they are as rare as hen’s teeth.

I could have said DRC or a first growth or a red label Giacosa - like the 1990 Barolo Collina Rionda - my wine of the year - or a Noel Verset Cornas, but the 1990 Jasmin Cote Rotie is my choice.

Edit I just found my tasting note from that lunch in late May (not June): “Oh the tragedy of the - slightly - corked magnum of Patrick Jasmin Cote Rotie 1990. Despite the faint corkiness this wine is an object of pure unalloyed feminine ethereal beauty. One of the finest ever creations of the Northern Rhone. But once the corkiness sets in there is no turning back”

1990 Rayas Pignan

I went through a case of this over the years. Stunning every time; my last bottle consumed in 2012 was just as good as the first. Too bad prices are so silly on all Rayas wines.

Like Joel, I don’t have a single bottle I would identify as my North Star in that way. Which doesn’t surprise me - I love to read but couldn’t identify a single favorite book, love movies but couldn’t narrow my favorite list smaller than maybe three to five, etc.

I have fallen in love with many individual bottles, and because I generally don’t drink the very highest end or rarest wines I have almost always managed to source additional bottles of the same wines. One thing I’ve found in doing that is that it is hard to repeat the exact same experience with aged bottles. The line separating “great” from “very good” is a narrow one that depends on both a lot of subtleties in the wine itself and the setting and moment you drink it in. I now think in terms of hundred point wine experiences rather than hundred point wines.

marcs wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:59 pm Like Joel, I don’t have a single bottle I would identify as my North Star in that way. Which doesn’t surprise me - I love to read but couldn’t identify a single favorite book, love movies but couldn’t narrow my favorite list smaller than maybe three to five, etc.

I have fallen in love with many individual bottles, and because I generally don’t drink the very highest end or rarest wines I have almost always managed to source additional bottles of the same wines. One thing I’ve found in doing that is that it is hard to repeat the exact same experience with aged bottles. The line separating “great” from “very good” is a narrow one that depends on both a lot of subtleties in the wine itself and the setting and moment you drink it in. I now think in terms of hundred point wine experiences rather than hundred point wines.

If we had a philosopher-in-residence at BWE, I’d nominate Marcus.

Comte Flaneur wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:15 pm I am going to go for 1990 Jasmin Cote Rotie

You mean Jasmin over Jamet?

AKR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 1:46 am

Comte Flaneur wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:15 pm I am going to go for 1990 Jasmin Cote Rotie

You mean Jasmin over Jamet?

Yes Jasmin over Jamet Arv - I like Jamet but the wines, while consistent, are a bit obvious and heavy-handed by comparison. But Jasmin never replicated the quality over the 1980-1990 period in subsequent decades.

I prefer Jasmin to every other Côte Rôtie. What it lacks in depth and structure it makes up in perfume and elegance. Plus I really enjoyed my visit with Patrick Jasmin whwn visiting the area a few years ago.

http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/ ... f=4&t=9868

With gun to head, 1989 Pichon Lalande.

SF Ed wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 3:28 pm1986 Talbot

This is indeed a magnificent wine. I had another bottle (my second) a few months ago. It started out as just another good, interesting, dark-fruited 1980s left bank Bordeaux, seemed ready to drink on the pop and pour, then over the course of the dinner expanded and grew, adding layers of intrigue and complexity and seeming almost to take on a kind of grandeur. Like music swelling and adding bass notes in a symphony.

I like the 86 Talbot (more nuance) just as much as the 82 (more power), though I’ve not had them side by side.

I picked the 1986 Talbot because it was one of my early epiphany wines in the mid 90s and has always been a wine near and dear to me. I always enjoy it and it feels like its "mine" - not quite like how 1989 Lynch Bages is JimHow, but to a degree.

SF Ed

Blanquito wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:17 pm I like the 86 Talbot (more nuance) just as much as the 82 (more power), though I’ve not had them side by side.

The bottle I had at dinner a few months ago was more memorable and "better" to me than the 1986 Mouton Rothschild that I had at a BWE DC Saturday night I think in 2018. It's that issue of wine experiences vs bottles again -- sitting with the Talbot over dinner allowed the wine to emerge and create epiphanies in a way that tasting the 86 Mouton in a mass tasting setting did not, although I recognized the Mouton as being excellent.

You know, if the question were what is your Lynch Bages?, rather than the specific 89 LB, maybe something like, if you could only drink one chateau for 20 years stranded on a deserted island, I know exactly what my answer is: Pichon Lalande.

Blanquito wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:57 pm You know, if the question were what is your Lynch Bages?, rather than the specific 89 LB, maybe something like, if you could only drink one chateau for 20 years stranded on a deserted island, I know exactly what my answer is: Pichon Lalande.

And money is no object?
Lafite. Without a doubt

jal wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 8:37 pm

Blanquito wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:57 pm You know, if the question were what is your Lynch Bages?, rather than the specific 89 LB, maybe something like, if you could only drink one chateau for 20 years stranded on a deserted island, I know exactly what my answer is: Pichon Lalande.

And money is no object?
Lafite. Without a doubt

Money’s no object, but the it has to be from amongst wines one knows well. You certainly know Lafite well enough to chose it, but I don’t.

The only First Growth I could stake a claim to at all is Haut Brion, which I’ve had more of than all the others combined. But as much as I love Haut Brion, my connection and adoration of Pichon Lalande is so much stronger, of the super seconds it’s the one I like the most (by far) especially considering how awesome it’s always been (never gone through a poor stretch, at least since ‘61, right?). Isn’t PLL on the short list for chateau of the decade for 1970-1979?

And the 82 (a legend), 83 (top 3 wine of the vintage?), 85 (beautiful), 86 (the good bottles are First Growth quality), 89 (consistently sensational, probably underrated given how great so many other 89s are), 95 (WOTV?), and 96 (also probably First Growth quality once fully mature) are right up there with the best wines I’ve had.

I love Pichon Lalande as well. Probably my number 3 favorite after Lafite and Margaux and definitely more affordable than either.

I wonder if anyone really answered the question, though.
What is your '89 Lynch?
To me, the question isn't what's the greatest wine you've had, or want to have.
What wine out there are you emotionally connected to?
And it might not necessarily be a Mouton or a DRC.
Maybe it's a '79 Giscours.... Or an '86 Talbot....
A wine that thrilled you in your early wine drinking life and is a goose-bump wine to uncork still to this day.
'89 Lynch is so unique because not only have I consumed it so many times but I've also written about it so much.
I have three lone bottles left in my cellar....