TN: 1984 Haut Brion

[PhilR]

Drank this last night (from magnum.. see 1984 thread). Good fill level, cork came out quite easily - almost too easily - but the top of the cork was sound and there was only partial staining up the side of it.

First sniff was a bit disconcerting, vaguely vinegary, but this soon disappeared to smell, well, of not much at all actually, just a very faint sort of leather and warm, faded fruit. So I poured a small glass out and had a taste - it was like a quiet, medium-to-light bodied wine that at first seemed quite ordinary but after a few more minutes and sips opened out to be a very pleasant, "secondary" fruit sort of flavour. It had an hour with the cork resting in the top of the bottle. Upon drinking, aromas of leather and this faded fruit smell followed it down the bottle and carried through to the pallete. This was a wine that you could just keep drinking, it was such a pleasure to drink it. Lovely wine, and went very well with sirloin steak with mushroom sauce on wilted green leaves.

[stefan]

Congratulations for your successful "experiment", Phil!

stefan

[stefan]

Here is my post from Thanksgiving '05 on 1994 wines:

>>
1984 was arguably the worst vintage for Bordeaux in the last quarter of a century. Most of the wines had no charm and even less fruit. The tannins were unmercifully hard. I wondered whether the wines would be better after aging and laid down bottles of some of the "best" 1984s to drink at age twenty or so.

After warming up with a delightful 2003 St. Innocent that stefanJr and Irena brought from Oregon and another bottle of the 2000 Petit Bocq that I like, we ate turkey soup, ham sandwiches, Brie, and drank 1984 from Domaine de Chevalier, Leoville las Cases, and Mouton. stefanJr remarked that these wines have the same herb or vegetation in the nose. All actually have some fruit now that the ferocious tannins are tame, but the tannins in the two Medocs demand food. The Graves is actually soft, but the flavors are muted. The LLC was liked by all as it possesses some St. Julien charm. The red currants are sweet and secondary characteristics, including pencil lead, have developed. The Mouton was my favorite. A bit bigger than the LLC, it also has more pencil lead and cassis.

We continued with 1994 Leoville Poyferre and 1998 Grand Corbin Despagne. The L-P has developed well even if it is still on the young side. The St. Emilion was a big hit. Half of the group liked it best of all the wines, while the other votes were split among the St. Juliens and the Mouton. Since the G-C-D was so well liked, I opened another bottle of it for those who were still thirsty. I have another 28 bottles of this wine, so my family can drink it again next year.
>>

[JimHow]

I'm not surprised Phil had success with the '84 Haut brion, we see many reports of successes from Bordeaux from weak vintages. If he had had this with a tasting of other Bordeaux from other vintages of the 1980s, the wine would have gotten lost in the mix. but on its own, over the course of several hours of dinner, I'm not surprised that some level of the greatness that is Bordeaux shines through.