Ok so I may have thrown some money away but this seemed like a ridiculous deal:
8 x 1980 Domaine de Chevalier Rouge for $120 at auction. After commission and delivery it was just over $20 a bottle.
What should I expect?
The bottles arrived and look like they are in pristine condition. I’m thinking of opening one for Christmas but literally can’t find anything online and I’ve never had a DDC that predates Olivier Bernard. I’ve heard that ancient DDC can still be great but there’s no info at all on the 1980 vintage that I’ve found.
Ok so I couldn’t wait. I cracked one open tonight. TN below:
Great fill level, cork a little crumbly but in good shape. Decanted for 30 mins before drinking. Drank over 3 hours. Ruby red in the centre to browning rim.
Nose is of saddle leather and black pepper. Wood smoke that gained with time in the glass; some cherry hiding in the background.
The palate is beautifully clean with good acidity, red berries, lingering anise and pepper. Body kept putting on weight with the hours. So happy I took a flyer on some of these at auction.
This was a no brainer at that price or even double that. Awesome buy. I’ve never tried ‘80 and your note has put it on the radar. Not easy to find ‘80 Bordeaux. A few of us had a beautiful bottle of ‘78 10 days ago that Ramon posted a note on.
Yeah it worked out but I had that horrible moment when I realized I had the only bid with all these thoughts running through my head: “Did I read the description wrong? What does everyone else know that I don’t?”
Good score. I confess that though a huge fan of 20th century DDC I would have hesitated at even low price for 8 bottles - my very limited experience with '80 Bdx is not encouraging, though i would have tried 1 or 2 bottles. So glad it worked out.