I tend not to buy in vintages that I don’t think will last long term, but occasionally grab a few bottles in off vintages. Not sure that I would condemn 1998 as being ‘off’ but they had a very hot summer and then a lot of rain and that limited the amount of really good wine to white and some right bank wines, so I pretty much passed.
I should add that I did not go on others reports - we had a Bordeaux shipper come with bottle samples of wine still in barrel every year so we could assess their future (not too hard to do with reds but the whites are still just fruit juice - very difficult to figure out where they will be going).
I bought a couple of red Bordeaux from this vintage and then (typically) stuck them in the cellar and forgot about them. I came across them when looking for something else and figured I might have ignored them for too long so opened them over a couple of nights.
1998 Château Tour Saint-Fort - this St Estephe was actually in very decent shape, showing some lightening at the edges and a nose of cedar (cigar box) and very decent fruit levels with fine acidity and a medium weight. It had a medium length and was still in good form. It developed some nice cassis fruit notes when it opened up. A very decent wine at what was the a bargain price.
1998 Château Berliquet - This St. Emilion was of similar price and standing, showing good fruit levels and opening to reveal some sweet fruit, decent concentration and medium length.
I keep a cool cellar (13 C.) so they had lasted well, and neither was significantly over the hill - the result might well have been much different from a warmer cellar.
I will now apply myself to going back through older vintages of Bordeaux to try and escape regret from not drinking soon enough (also found one bottle of 1964 right bank I have to get to fairly soon!)
The ones I tasted en primeur didn’t impress us very much. As to how they showed in future years, as I indicated, you want to look to right bank for best wines but some left bank were fine. I have little experience with them so was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the two I opened.
My impression of the wines in general wasn’t conditioned just by my tasting of bottle samples - early years’ tasting (though far from a comprehensive survey) never appealed that much to me.
Agree with Jeff completely … 1998 might be the best vintage on the right bank and Graves between 1990 and 2000, if not between 1990 and 2005 … and there are even some fine efforts in the Medoc …
so talking about “off” is far off …
No doubt, love love love the 98 right bank, especially Pomerol. Some major superstars, especially Trotanoy, VCC and in St Emilion, Magdelaine. Not sure I realized Pessac-Leognan starred as well.
I would go a lot further than that.
As far as the Right Bank goes, I would say it’s the best vintage since 1982, and nothing after would equal let alone beat it, with the possible exception of 2016, which is shaping up quite nicely. In the Graves, it is a brilliant vintage, but there are a few more contenders.