TN: 1986 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

[JimHow]

• 1986 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (6/22/2009)
  This wine is brilliant. It blows away the '82, in my humble opinion. Big and beastly with thick ripe rich black currant and cassis, this is a big bad Pauillac. I can't say it quite gets to the 100+ that I have previously given the Mouton from that vintage, but it is right up there. A profound wine, it may be one of my top ten favorite wines of all time. Absolutely stunning on the nose, on the palate, with a finish that lasted over a minute. Matched with all the red meat on my plate, I was in heaven. (99 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Comte Flaneur]

Wow that is the most enthusiastic note I have read on this wine - it was probably the most controversial wine at our 1986 tasting and it was very backward on that occasion - but there is no doubt this is destined for greatness

[Rick]

and we had 2 of these
Jim do you recall if you liked one better than the other ?

As I recall on the first I made sure I had the server fill yours and mine after he did the first pour for others

what a fun Beastly wine

[JimHow]

They were both awesome, Rick, what a great night, thanks for making it all possible!

[stefan]

This was my favorite wine at BWE1.

stefan

[JimHow]

He-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless thinks it is "awesome" and scores it 96 points.

[Ramon_NYC]

I don't have my notes, but this one made my top 4 wines of the night during the 1986 Tasting at NYC last year.

[SteveH]

I agree. This wine was a real stunner at the ' 86 dinner.

That night we laid to rest many published proclamations of, 'death by tannins,' that had previously been associated with 1986 Bordeaux.

[Comte Flaneur]

Shame you are not coming to the 89 dinner Steve

[Claudius]

Wow,
I have several of these in storage.
The 86s I have treid are exclllent - Cos, Ducru, Margaux etc, and I have not tried the PL but now I am certainly looking forward to it!

[JimHow]

I used to enjoy this wine back eight or ten years ago Mark, when it was still an infant, and it has only continued to get better. It is a fifty year wine.

[Claudius]

In that case, I will not hurry.

I have reviewed a few other 86s here over the last year or so.
The 86 Cos is brilliant. I rated it the best Cos at a hosted tasting (with Bruno Prats) several years ago, of wines from 75 to 2000 (the latter just a sample).

The 86 Ducru is also very very good, a bit earthier than the Cos, maybe a notch behind.

The Gruaud larose is more old fashioned, burly and powerful, but not quite as classy - the rusticity of the wine is not for everyone (I recently sent my 88's to auction - a bit TOO rustic, without the depth of 86).

The 86 Margaux is one of the best wines I've ever tried, and is still tannic. I made the mistake of opening one of these 10 years ago to find a wine with a great nose yet a tannic palate - this demands time (and careful storage).

This vintage is everyhting the 75 was meant to be.
And many 86s are for my palate better than 82 in the central Medoc.

[DavidG]

Where are the notes from our BWE '86 dinner in NY? That was before we moved to the new site - wish we could pull that stuff back up.

[jal]

Just for you David:

http://bordeauxwine.org/bwe/new/1/150301/

[jal]

The old forum's search can be accessed at:

http://bordeauxwine.org/bwe/swish.cgi

[DavidG]

Thanks, Jacques - that was a nice dinner!

Paging Phil...

Can we put this link at the top of the page, under the "BWE Archive" tab, which is currently not linking to anything?

[hautbrionlover]

Wow, that's some review.
I have two bottles of this wine but have avoided opening them because I didn't think they were ready when I had this wine elsewhere.
I had one bottle in either 2002 or 2003 and I thought it was still tight and needed 5-10 years until optimal drinking.
Maybe now I'll reconsider.