TN: 1982 Rouget Pomerol

[jal]

With grilled hanger steak and homemade chimichurri sauce;
Cork is soaking wet but we got it out in two tries with a Durand and no harm, the nose is funky at first and I feared the worst, but we gave this twenty minutes and it was beautiful, nice light terracotta color, delicious fruit with nice secondary and tertiary flavors, the structure is sound, the wine has good acidity in the front to stand up to the meat and sweetness in the mid and back. This probably would have been better 5-10 years ago but it's still going strong and will last for another few years. Everyone loved it 91. Boy, these 1982 Bordeaux are so amazing!

[stefan]

>>
Boy, these 1982 Bordeaux are so amazing!
>>

Indeed. In my experience Rouget is a solid Pomerol in good vintages. It is not surprising to me that it made such a wine in 1982, which, IMO, is a fantastic vintage.

The only problem with 1982 is that the wines have been flipped a lot, so one takes an added risk in buying them at auctions.

[DavidG]

This wine and 1982 Talbot were my first full case purchases when I was beginning to succumb to the siren song of Bordeaux. Sadly all long gone. They were described to me by my wine guy as inexpensive entry level Bordeaux worthy of following over time. The Talbot was well known and had a fair amount of positive press at the time but Rouget wasn’t one of the cool/popular names.

The first bottle of Rouget I opened, pretty much as soon as I got it, tasted of dirty ashtray, all bitter and tannic. I thought I’d made a big mistake. Well, not that big as it was only $12/bottle. My wine guy reassured me that it would be fine, I just needed patience. Sure enough, it started to come around about 10 years later. It was fun to see a recent note on this one.

[jal]

I bought two bottles of this at an Acker auction back in 2012, I just looked and I paid $60 for both!! Yes Stefan that is the risk but at that price I thought it was worth it.
Interesting David, I always thought 82 Bordeaux were open for business from day 1.

[DavidG]

I bought two bottles of this at an Acker auction back in 2012, I just looked and I paid $60 for both!! Yes Stefan that is the risk but at that price I thought it was worth it.
Interesting David, I always thought 82 Bordeaux were open for business from day 1.

Me too, Jacques, and it was certainly the case with the Talbot, though complexity didn’t come until much later. That’s what worried me about the Rouget, but it came around. Not a "great" wine or on the same level as the Talbot, but very enjoyable.

[greatbxfreak]

Doesn't surprise me at all.

I'd an excellent bottle of Certan Marzelle 1982 some weeks ago.

Apparently after Giraud family purchased this property in 1956 and renamed it Certan Giraud, there was still some kind of agreement between new owner and negociant in Bordeaux, who had an exclusivity on name Certan Marzelle (name of the property before purchase by Girauds) and received part of the Certan Giraud production as that. As far I have been told, there was no difference between those two wines, apart from Certan Marzelle label being white with black letters and Certan Giraud being black with golden letters. Jean-Pierre Moueix purchased Certan Giraud in 1999 and renamed it Hosanna.

This wine was simply stunning at cold evening in the beginning of December 2019 in Copenhagen. Dark red, very aromatic with truffles, so young in appearance that you couldn't believe it, so fresh with fantastic balance, complexity and structure. My friend who is incredibly good taster, guessed this wine to be 2000!! 37 years old Pomerol and still kicking ass! My feel is that this wine can live at least 20 years more. I have one bottle left of this beauty. 95p.

[AKR]

Interesting back story on the Certan Marzelle as I have a bottle of some vintage somewhere and didn't know much about it.

I like Rouget too, but not enough for the $50 they wanted for the 2015.

[Nicklasss]

Seems like a delicious 1982 Jal.

Unfortunately because of my age and prices, i did not bought a lot of 1982 in my life, probably none. My experience tasting 1982 wouls have been nada is no BWE in my life. I thank you all.

Happy holidays to Jill, you and the kids.

Nic

[brodway]

I've been drinking through a case of 98 Rouget that I picked up at auction for 455 a case several years ago and it's a very solid wine. They are drinking really well now and I'm not sure I'd want to risk holding them for another 15 years