80's Bordeaux and retirement

[Blanquito]

One of the local wine buddies, Mark, retired last week and tonight we celebrated with a terrific set of mature claret. Great night, great wines.

2006 Louis Roederer Champagne Blanc de Blancs
Charming, delicious, balanced, fresh on the spectrum with notes of lemon and ginger, at pointe. 92-93 pts.

1982 Château Léoville Las Cases
Terrific bottle of this, given a double decant about 2.5 hours before dinner. Cool fruit, restrained bouquet, dominated by iron, charcoal and especially graphite, cassis and black fruit, a sense of coiled depth and a slight note of concentrate on the backend (but not blocky like some LLC can be). Shows more like a Pauillac. This improved during the meal, especially the nose, and it might even have some more runway to improve in the cellar, but I think this is just what it is-- a semi-powerful, balanced, introspective, classy wine without lots of upfront appeal. Or maybe, this being LLC, it just needs more time. 93+ pts.

1983 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Classic Comtessa, with an exotic, flashy bouquet showing dark fruits, barnyard, sous bois, saddle leather and the signature minty-wintergreen topnote. Resolved, silky palate with a good density of cassis and cedar. Popped and poured and this got stronger after ah hour or more of air. 94 pts.

1986 Château Lynch-Bages
Tremendously good wine, ran neck and neck with the 83 PLL and 82 LLC and pulled away in the end with its terrific energy and masculine display of depth and power, if not the '83 PLL's complexity and mid palate charm. Graphite, black currant, minerals, quite bright giving this real drive, and the tannins are evident but no longer obtrusive or particularly hard. Very Cabernet Sauvignon with mint and cedar, long finish. 1986 is/was often compared to 1975, but despite some ironesque structure here, this is much better than any '75 I've had. Still lots of time here, but drinking great given a couple of hours in an open decanter. 95 pts.

2004 Château Cos d'Estournel
Glossy, oaky, sweet, borderline gloppy, spit-polished, flabby, anonymous, international, Napa-esque, insipid. That all said, this wine isn't outright flawed, it is "correct" as Clive might have said. How they made a wine like this in such a crunchy vintage is scary. 86 pts.

2001 Château Suduiraut
My first 01 Sud, and it did not disappoint. This is mid maturity now with a medium orange hue and a distinct note of cured orange and marmalade, and some incipient oyster shell. Layers of fruit and body, not particularly sweet nor bright, rather it is wonderfully smooth and elegant for a stickie, if not quite at d'Yquem levels of class. Still early days and I think more complexity will develop, but so tasty as is. 94-95 pts.

2007 Williams Selyem Gewürztraminer Late Harvest Vista Verde Vineyard
Still going strong, très floral bouquet redolent orange blossoms with only a hint of the funkier, wild side of gewurz. Uber bright and clean despite all the fruit and sugar, penetrating and fun. Not the last word in depth or complexity, these are just so irresistibly joyful to drink. 93 pts.

[Harry C.]

Lovely. Has anyone really had a mature LLC? Tasting notes always seem to end with give another 5 years.

[RPCV]

Lovely. Has anyone really had a mature LLC? Tasting notes always seem to end with give another 5 years.

I'm with you on that and it's why I do not own a single bottle.

[AKR]

Sorry to hear about that Cos.

[Blanquito]

Sorry to hear about that Cos.

Well, the guy who brought it loved it, but then he’s a huge fan of SQN.

[stefan]

Is it safe to assume that 2004 Château Cos d'Estournel will not make your top ten list for 2023?

[Nicklasss]

Great set of wines blanquito.

I brought a 1982 LLC at DC 2020 and i thought it was ready and great! I think the "never ready" character of LLC doesn't exist. It is only a very very very serious concentrated austere Saint Julien. It is it's terroir and the making that give that style. Like it is the terroir, the oak, and the making that make that 2004 Cos d'Estournel style. Montrose reminds me a bit LLC, but is just a bit easier because of a bit more merlot and argile...

1983 PLL and 1986 LB are surely excellent, but i hacen't had them in years. These two wines are always lefting a strong impression on you.

The 2001 Suduiraut seems great. If you can, try the 2009 that is the nearest of Yquem i had, that is not a Yquem.

[SF Ed]

I think the LLC "problem" is the same as Latour. It takes decades to drink well, especially in great vintages.

I had the opportunity to drink a lot of LLC in the late 90s and it often didn't show well because I was drinking vintages from the 80s at that point. I always have liked 1983 a lot - it is pure and classical. The great vintages like 1982, 1986 and 1990 were never ready.

LLC did a good job in the 1970s, with the 1970, 1975 and 1978 being good examples and were all ready to drink years ago.

The 1966 LLC is a great wine, at the level of many of the first growths.

And at Tim's 50th Francois brought a 1945 LLC that was great. But waiting over 70 years for maturity isn't in the cards for most of us.

SF Ed

[Comte Flaneur]

Nice line up Patrick. One of my biggest regrets in life is not loading up more on 1983, 1986 and 1988 Lynch Bages.

Of the estates that really shone in the 1980s - and I would include Pichon Lalande, Gruaud Larose and Cos D’Estournel in that group (excludes FGs) - I would say that LYNCH would be the pick for me.

[Blanquito]

Good point, Ian. Excluding Firsts, who did better than Lynch 82-90? If the range is 80-89, I’d probably pick PLL, but 82-90 would probably be Lynch.

[marcs]

Nice line up Patrick. One of my biggest regrets in life is not loading up more on 1983, 1986 and 1988 Lynch Bages.

Of the estates that really shone in the 1980s - and I would include Pichon Lalande, Gruaud Larose and Cos D’Estournel in that group (excludes FGs) - I would say that LYNCH would be the pick for me.

If that’s truly one of your biggest regrets in life I’d say you are doing very well indeed!

I can imagine you talking to St Peter at the pearly gates…not many sins to report your holiness…had to buy some bottles of Lynch Bages at auction instead of release prices, with possibly questionable storage, but other than that life’s been pretty much smooth sailing…

[JimHow]

Indeed, Lynch Bages from the 1980s has been some of the best Bordeaux I have ever tasted, along with those Cordier wines from the same decade.

[Blanquito]

Cordier 82-86 is one of the the greatest stretches of all-time (well, since I started following BDX)... they still made great tipple in 88-90, but the fell off the pace quite a bit in my experience, especially Gruaud where the 88, 89 and 90 cannot hold a candle to the 82, 83, 85, and 86.

[Blanquito]

A few thoughts about LLC... I really enjoyed the 82 LLC, but I expected the heavens to part and they didn't, a relative disappointment reflected in my note... the 82 was still young, with an almost shockingly deep color still, so Ed's thesis that LLC is nearly-always-too-young certainly has some merit... the most mature, but not-over-the-hill LLC I've had was a lovely bottle of the 83, which I drank with ChrisB and TomW and a few others at Ruth Chris in DC in 2012 (http://www.bordeauxwineenthusiasts.com/ ... uth#p25194), and even this fully mature, comparatively giving LLC showed a signature austerity, dominated by old wood, dried leather, dust, brown sauce, but despite the descriptors, it wasn't oxidized in the least, this is just how LLC *is* like Nic says, at least back in the 80's; the '82 was definitely cut from the same cloth... My first BWE offline in 2005 was a St Julien night in NYC (notes lost in cyberspace, though someone with some html chops could revive these, the data is still just sitting there), and there were several LLC from the 70's that seemed very over the hill even then, tasting of morning-after ashtray...

[Claudius2]

Lovely. Has anyone really had a mature LLC? Tasting notes always seem to end with give another 5 years.

I finished off a case of 1975 before leaving Australia- thus all gone by 2009. I drank several in the late 90s and loved it. It was not the tannic monster I expected and was to my palate the best 1975 except for HB and LMHB.

By 2009 the tannins were very much resolved and the wine was still in good shape yet I actually preferred it at 20-25 years. This tannic vintage however did produce some angular wines but the LLC was really good.

I’ve also left some vintages too long in storage and particularly the 1978 and 79.