We had these wines, with the scores from the participants.
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The Haut Brion had sensational aromatics and front end, while leaner in the back end, while the Haut-Bailly arguably had a a tad more fruit. The 1997 Leoville Barton, bare, acidic and VA-marred and the diffuse, sweet and unfocused 1997 Pichon Lalande were major disappointments - maybe poor bottles? The 1994 flight was solid. My pick was La Conseillante, which had that extra bit of class, while the L’Eglise-Clinet, was initially characterised by tinned fruit but then improved and became truffly. The Pontet-Canet was comfortable in its cardigan, slippers and pipe but hardly profound in my opinion. It has been on this level for a decade.
The 1993 Lafleur started out promisingly but did not in the end deliver, while by contrast the 1993 Cheval Blanc was all over the place to begin with but came on really strong at the finish, like a dark horse: never under-estimate Cheval Blanc. The 1993 La Conseillante was horribly corked. The two 1991s - Palmer and La Lagune - were old fashioned luncheon clarets, somewhat bare...difficult to choose between them because the Palmer (only 12% ABV) had the Margaux berries but was somewhat indifferent on the palate while the Lagune improved as it warmed up, and if anything pipped its flight mate to the post. I suspect if both were matched against their respective 1990s the differences would have been profound.
