Thanks for the information gentleman!
Lots of variables in this stuff, but the most obvious point is that almost no one who buys DRC relies on or gives any weight whatsoever to RP ratings. Analysis using Meadows would be more apt.
Ryan, thank you very much. Will sign up for BurgHound.
Curious, what is it you want to do with that information? Is this for personal enjoyment or investment?
The biggest problem with old DRC is that it was bottled barrel by barrel( even today its only bottled 6 barrels at a time) -so there’s a reasonable amount of variation. This doesn’t include storage and cork variation also.Anything from the 60’s is pretty rare by now with doubtful provenance. All reviews before the 90’s are mostly meaningless ,unless the bottles you’re buying have great provenance.Not sure how far you want to go back,but I think there are previous threads discussing the best vintages of La Tache. I vaguely recall that Alan may have even written about a recent vertical in the last few years,but you could always create a thread asking peoples opinions. My choice for drinking from oldest to youngest for the last 50 yrs ( really 1970-2005 )00would be
71,78,85,90,91,99,02,03,05( although lots of the intermediate vintages are drinking really well these day incl 79,80,88,95,00,01,04 )
Well, in his ‘Pearl of the Cote’ (which should be required reading if you’re studying any VR sites), AM gives the '99 a 99 (along with '05) and cites that as perhaps a conservative score (not adding the fantastic note). The '61 he doesn’t think nearly as highly of. Much prefers the '62.
Ryan is correct, you may be using the wrong reviewer for your research.
You could subscribe to Burghound for all his scores.
Both!
Thank you very much Edward for the detailed response. Much appreciated!
I absolutely was, thanks for the book recommendation! Will start reading ASAP.
Done! Thank you.
61 LT has probably seen its best days and 99 is still on the upswing. 62 is a legendary LT and always regarded higher than 61.
If getting Burghound, look also at View from the cellar and Tanzer’s work.
Nothing like starting at the top.
Uh oh, another Pointhole.
Why do they even offer critics samples?
I figured it was Kapon who offered the samples.
Thank you very much Alan.
Back when I would actually drink this stuff I almost always preferred those intermediate vintages with some age to the heavy hitters, e.g. 1980s were spectacular.
yep. And cheap. I bought a pair—LT and RC—for $200 total, 1980, Wine Exchange. Long gone and great. Laughed when 2000 LT hit $1000–can never go higher—now it’s $4000. Crazy.
Just perusing free Wine-Searcher, there’s a heckuva lotta these trophy vintages for sale in Hong Kong, which suggests to me that there’s likely a very robust [albeit covert] cottage industry which is busy counterfeiting these wines.