1997 Bordeaux: does it have a future?

[Comte Flaneur]

I' m sure like many of you I have quite a bit of stuff stored externally.

At the end of every year I review what to take out of storage as I incur annual storage charges.

I definitely prefer fully mature claret to primary/fruit driven wines.

I have cases of 1997 Haut-Brion and Lafite. Is there any reason to let them sleep longer, and if I leave them might they go down hill like 1984/87 and some of the early 90s vintages? Lafite in particular can be an extremely long-lived wine, as I experienced with the 1966 yesterday.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[stefan]

The last '97 I drank was Ducru, a couple of years ago. It was light, delightful, and showed no signs of decay.

[AlexR]

I had 97 Pape Clément yesterday.

The nose was lovely, but the wine was weak and tired on the palate.

I think that this is the case with many 1997s.

A future? Yes, but not a bright one *in most instances*

I would drink up any I had, up to and including 1st growths.

I see these as part of a series as a dinner, builiding up to something better.

Alex R.

[stefan]

Alex, your experience with the '97 Pape Clement is typical of mine with high end '87s drunk latish and very different from the one with '97 Ducru.

I doubt that there are many '97s that will actually improve, although Lafite is the one most likely to be an exception. We drank all of our '97 Firsts fairly early except for 2 bottles of Latour that I am holding to drink in 2017.

[AKR]

I don't have anything helpful/useful to say about your two specific holdings but my general feelings about the vintage were that it was lighter, and needed to be drunk up early. I doubt I held any past 2003 or 2004. LLC or Cos might have been kept a bit longer, but not by much. I'm guessing I've tried 50-60 of the wines over the years, mostly in the first half decade after release. Poujeaux, Charmail, Ducru, Mouton, Pavie Macquin, LLC all were mildly memorable. A Grand Puy Ducasse is memorable for being one of the worst cru classe's I can recall tasting. (It made it difficult to stump up and buy the 2010 GPD, even though I eventually did)

Some local retailers are selling quite a bit of 1997 apparently, and waxing on about it. It seems strange to me. Maybe Californians are impressed with any wine that has age on it, even if doesn't make sense to age them, because they are so used to good weather that they just buy and drink anything local as they need it. There is little concept among ordinary consumers of buying because one might get 3 bad vintages in a row like 91, 92, 93 in Bordeaux where one just has to sit on the sidelines. Napa/Sonoma enthusiasts really have only had two bad years in the last quarter century -- 2011, 2000.

We've been drinking too much young wine recently - Fall shipping season makes it hard to resist what's come in.

[Roel]

When I started collecting wines, around 2000-2001, 1997 already was the vintage to avoid. A 'restaurants vintage'. Had only a handful and never was impressed. Lighter wines; pleasant, but nothing more. 1999 OTOH turned out much better than expected.

[Rudi Finkler]

As Alex said, there is no reason to let them sleep any longer. In 2000 and 2001, I received a 33% discount on all 1997 Bordeaux wines from my local retailer here in Saarland. I bought almost all classified growths and the best crus bourgeois. Lots of charming wines, e few even outstanding like Las Cases and Poujeaux. BTW, Poujeaux was clearly better than Latour and Margaux. In 2005, all of them had reached their peak, some even began to decline...

[JimHow]

Boy, to this day people still talk about that '97 Poujeaux. I don't think I ever had it, but wish I did.

[Comte Flaneur]

I still have a couple left of the Poujeaux 1997. If ever a wine punched above its weight this is it. Good as it is I respectfully would not agree with Rudi that it is better than the FGs. Margaux is lovely in 1997 so is Mouton, and I tried Latour a couple of years ago and it was still a tad on the tight side but very impressive.

The en primeur campaign was a calamity because the 1996 vintage was used as a reference. After the inevitable price collapse I remember seeing Ducru 1997 selling for £220ib for a case of 12, and like a moron I didn't scoop any up.
Pichon Baron was very good in 1997, and Farr Vintners here sold it by the truck load, 10-15 years ago at £240ib.

[AKR]

It seems to me that everyone has been happy with D-B in off vintages.

[Jay Winton]

I went through a case of 97 PB and agree that it was a great buy. $300 a case when Bassins was dumping 97s. I also bought some Lynch Bages which I disliked initially but it improved a bit-still may have a bottle.