1986 Château Gressier Grand Poujeaux - a cru bourgeois from Moulis that like many from this vintage seemed overly tannic on release (some characterized it as ‘under-fruited’ but I think that is wrong. The fruit was always there, it was just concealed by the tannins – if I hadn’t had a lot of experience with the very similar 1975 vintage, I might have leapt to the same erroneous conclusion.
Well it has finally smoothed out. It was medium garnet colour right to the edges, and had a nose of red currant and cedar. There was a fair bit of acidity, but it was (just) balanced by the remaining fruit. The tannins have died down to a very acceptable level – they are not prominent at all. Decent showing and ending with medium length. In prime time for drinking now.
At one time I had three bottles of the 1975 that my brother found somewhere around 2000. One was unfortunately corked but the other two were excellent. I drank the last one somewhere between five and ten years ago and it was still in great shape.
GGP is one of those properties that occasionally exceeds all your expectations and gives a great value mature Bordeaux experience, I wish I had more of the 79 and a time machine to go back a decade or so to when it was at peak.