Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Last evening we had a wonderful dinner out with friends and unfortunately we had two couples who were no shows. One's wife hurt her back chopping wood for the winter!!! The other were forced to babysit their grandchildren at the last minute. Oh well it was nice have our good friends to ourselves and we didn't have to share the 1982 and 2000 Pichon Lalonde 8 ways and this way there was plenty of joy amongst the 4 of us.

The night got off on the wrong foot with the last minute no shows then the first wine of the eve which should have been stellar Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Genevrières 2010 was badly premoxed. Gosh this is frustrating to endure the expense of the bottle,pay for corkage and then flush it down the toilet!!

With wild mushroom parpadelle and pea shoots we started with the 82 PLL. WOW was this ever in a great spot. Sure made up for the other issues preceding. Elegant nose of kirsch/cassis,cedar and spice that was intoxicating. I couldn't let my nose out of the glass. Perfect balance with fruit starting to head into the background but still very present. Classic graphite,cassis,cedar and Asian spice. Wonderful length that lingered on the back palate and hit all the right notes on entry,mid and hind palate.Everything you want from a wine. Impeccable balance, hedonistic nose and shear enjoyment all the way down perfectly matching the starter. On a sad note over the dinner this did burn out with nose dying after 1 1/2-2 hrs usually indicating to me that even though this wine is in a very good place right now and was stored unmoved from 52 degree cellar from release I'd suggest don't wait another decade to enjoy as the magic may have passed and that would be a terrible shame to miss out on this beauty.

With the mains, filet with Bordelais sauce for me,Venison loin with red wine reduction for my good friend, scallops for his wife and Danielle had guinea hen with foie gras. The 2000 PLL was another stunner. Definitely in a very good drinking window but much more youthful with vibrant dark cassis lingering on the tongue. There is no mistaking these two as siblings both on the nose and palate. This wine is seamless and a joy from start to finish that kept building in the glass over the course of the night. Boy for those that are sitting on this you will love this now and the decades to come. This is up there with one of if not the best 2000 I have had the pleasure to drink to date. Hard to say if this will exceed the 82 but both are superb wines that gave us immense pleasure and made up for the lost company.

Sounds like a great night.

I don't beleive you Danny. i'll have to go to Ottawa to verify.

Seriously, seems like a great dinner (except the white Bourgogne, outch). The 1982 Pichon Lalande is tremendous. Never had the 2000 but as it is a vintage I like a lot, guess I'll have to try it one day. The 2000 Lynch Bages is also glorious.

I would say to everyone, very good time now, and for the next 10 years, to open and enjoy the 2000.

Nic

Thanks for the note Danny. Sounds like the 2000 PLL is some wine...iirc is has a fair amount of petit Verdot in the blend?

Man, I sure hope the 2000 PLL can give the 1982 a run for its money, Danny. I've got 4-5 of the 2000 in the cellar.

Ian,

Probably why Danielle loved the 2000 so much...she has a thing for the petit verdot as you may remember from SHL when she ragged on the wine maker for leaving it out on one of the wines we tasted there.

Patrick,

I don't think there will be any disppointments on the 2000 now or going forward. This is a real beauty.

Wasn't 2000 P-L controversial like the 1990? IIRC

Controversial, but not like the 1990.
Controversial in a good way.
1990 was a flawed wine.
2000 the question was whether there was too much greenness, or, as the Parkerites would say, whether there was too much "bell pepper," <rolls eyes>, "green streak," <rolls eyes again>.
1990 is controversial because it was flawed and sucked.
2000 was controversial because it rose to great heights but the question was whether you liked that unique style, like the 2000 Sociando (amazing wine) or 1959 Lafite (amazing wine).

I'll certainly take anyones controversies that they want to get rid of. I see nothing but greatness ahead for this one. Green pepper if it was there has moved into the undetectable background. The only thing that I'm unhappy about is that I drank my bottles too soon and I think this wine now truly starting to shine.

I worried about the level of greens in the PL 2000 when I tasted it from barrel, and I sill think it is a touch high, but there is so much good stuff elsewhere that it is a tiny flaw. Not so Sociando, which is bell pepper in the extreme, with little room for much else.

Misigny

There`s green/bell pepper that comes with unripe cab but can't see cab being unripe in 2000. There are some that love it(I'm not one of them) just like Brett(again I abhor it). I just never picked up a greeness showing in this bottle unlike the ones that I've had in the past when they were younger and even though the bell pepper typically does not disappear from my experience it was not anywhere in the forefront especially side by side with the 82. Maybe it was the company/bottle/pairing I don't know but I loved this one.

It is definitely more bell pepper than the herbal note one finds in other vintages of Lalande notably 1986 and 1996. My guess is that the Petit Verdot, notoriously hard to ripen in Bordeaux, was a fraction off, but the note is slight now and the wine is to my mind, enhanced by it. It is not the wine for anybody who dislikes that flavor. For me, in its present form, it is archetypal, old fashioned Medoc.