Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

The aftermath of Maria has made us more conscious of the little pleasures in life and more grateful for moments shared with friends and family. Yesterday our wine group met for a tasting based on the theme of which Bordeaux would you save from your cellar if you only had time to pull one bottle. Included are the wines and brief tasting impressions.

1978 Cheval Blanc- Really elegant and complete wine. Classic mature Bordeaux aromatics and a velvety balanced texture. Nearly perfect Bordeaux.

1978 Haut Brion - Sweet fruit on the attack, ample body, and a tobacco dominated finish made this wine a pleasure to drink. Really pretty wine at a great stage of development.

1978 Mission Haut Brion - Monolithic and incredibly still closed. A little bit of fruit came out from around the wall of tannins after some coaxing but this was one grumpy bottle of Bordeaux.

1982 Cheval Blanc - Whoa, what a gorgeous glass of wine. It had lots of everything and gas on the tank for future development. Another near perfect Bordeaux.

1982 Pichon Lalande - The perfect Bordeaux. Enough said.

1982 Mission Haut Brion - Corked.

1982 Mouton Rothschild - One click below the 82 Lalande. While the Pichon was all about hedonistic pleasure the Mouton was more cerebral.

1985 Lynch Bages - This is another wine that is all about pleasure and arouses all of the senses. The green pepper was in balance on this bottle and the complexity was off the charts. The best bottle I’ve had of this wine.

1986 Mission Haut Brion - The vintage dominated and the drying tannins were a distraction to the wonderful balance of power and grace in this wine.

1989 Chateau Margaux - Elegant, aristocratic, perfumed, old school Bordeaux.

1989 Lynch Bages - This wine had so much fruit that it appeared from Napa. Wonderful but needs years to resolve and give the pleasure of the 85 Lynch.

Thanks for reading. Which one would you grab and save from your cellar?

Good job Carlos. What a splendid tasting.

I hope things are good a little better for you.

Bill

Wow, what a great lineup Carlos. Hard to comprehend the damage done by Maria, and worse, our dismal response. Glad to see you and your friends are enjoying life. Do you have power yet or are you still using a generator?

As to your question, if I had to save one Bordeaux currently in my cellar, it would be the 1989 Haut Brion.

1998 Petrus. Because it is my most valuable bottle. I would flip it to get started again.

To answer you question, 1975 Lafite. Not because it's my best/most valuable wine but it was a gift from the senior partners when I passed the California Bar in 1978.

Bill

1989 Haut Brion. One of my Top Bordeaux ever tasted.

Hi,

I have promised myself to open my bottle of 82 Mouton R. when I retire.
This should happen next year...

But, leaving aside Sauternes (where I might choose a 2001 Fargues), I have a special soft spot for 2004 Lafite, which impressed me perhaps more than any other wine from that estate during recent en primeur tastings.

Alex R.

1990 Le Pin. My precious.

if i had one it would be the '82 Talbot without question nothing is close

I'm still dreaming about the day when the 89 Petrus gets opened. I have a tough time thinking about its value and another nice vacation that could come with the proceeds or a possible hedonistic memory.....hopefully not a counterfeit bottle!!!

Alex

The 82 Mouton that I had for my 60th last January was stunning!! Hopefully you'll have a similar experience.

Glad to hear 82 Cheval Blanc was still developing. My last bottle about 10 years ago was slowly sliding downward.

My pick from the cellar is 90 Margaux.

Yes, I had that same impression about the 82 Cheval Blanc.

Mind you, I'm not saying it's over the hill and not worth it.

Just that it was already losing its vigor a while back.

If someone offered me a glass, I would not say no!!!!

Alex R.

This bottle of the 82 Cheval was singing. It was blind too so no bias. It was early on the tasting too so no goggles either.

2000 Lafite Rothschild but my reasoning is really two fold; (1) sentimental value as this was a btl that my girlfriend gifted me for my birthday 12 years ago after I had been unwilling to pull the trigger on the purchase myself several weeks prior as I could not get my head around the sticker shock of $400 + tax for 1 btl of wine and (2) it was and still is the most valuable btl of Bdx that I own

I don't have that bottle, but if I would, i would save a 1985 Chateau Grand-Puy Lacoste, because it beat so badly the 1986 Chateau Léoville Barton at Napa in 2002, and some were so bad about that found a way to cheat.

Or the 1988 Vieux Chateau Certan, the first wine that beat the 1989 Chateau Lynch Bages in a BWE blind tasting!

A more serious answer later, as I have to think about it a bit.

Nic

Boy, I have some gems... 1989 Lynch... 1995 Petrus... 1996 Lafite (multiple bottles)... 1996 Margaux....

In the vein of William P's pick, perhaps a 1996 Trotanoy that my mother gave me not long before she died....

1989 Lynch, 2008 Haut Brion and 2012 Margaux.

The first for obvious reasons, but the latter two for sentimental reasons as they are my kids' birthyears and are slated to be gifts for them.

I know the question asking for one bottle. But I took the liberty of listing 3 as all they are in one 3-bottle wooden case...

My heart is balancing between the 2008 Chateau Lafite Rothschild or the 1986 Chateau d'Yquem. As Marie-Claude and my mom like sweet wines, I would go with the Sauternes.

Nic

Chateau Vin wrote:1989 Lynch, 2008 Haut Brion and 2012 Margaux.

The first for obvious reasons, but the latter two for sentimental reasons as they are my kids' birthyears and are slated to be gifts for them.

I know the question asking for one bottle. But I took the liberty of listing 3 as all they are in one 3-bottle wooden case...

great post

robertgoulet wrote:

Chateau Vin wrote:1989 Lynch, 2008 Haut Brion and 2012 Margaux.

The first for obvious reasons, but the latter two for sentimental reasons as they are my kids' birthyears and are slated to be gifts for them.

I know the question asking for one bottle. But I took the liberty of listing 3 as all they are in one 3-bottle wooden case...

great post

Thanks..