TN: 1988 Bordeaux at Keen's Steakhouse in midtown NYC

Our little Bordeaux group met Wednesday at Keens for a 25 year look at the 1988 vintage. Turned into a nice day, and I enjoyed the walk from Grand Central to Keens. My first time there- service was fine and they were good with stems. Some pickles and crudite on table, my first course was a good chopped salad, then I had the Legendary Mutton Chop (I was told this is 10 month old lamb, so not mutton by most standards, but that’s a big hunk of meat); we also had sides of spinach, beans, and various potatoes.

Ramon started us off with the 2008 Dujac “Mont-Luisants” Morey St Denis 1er cru. Full but with good crispness, not a lot of oak, pear and citrus. Someone questioned if this was Chardonnay or a Gouges- like Pinot Blanc/Noir sport, but no one knew (but everyone enjoyed I think) B+

On to the reds:

The Haut Bailly, L’Eglise Clinet, and Montrose were double-decanted and each had about an hour in decanter before being returned to bottle about 3 hours before being served, I think everything else just opened as dinner started.

Red Graves Flight #1:
1988 Haut Bailly - pretty nose, mostly resolved tannins, sweet black currant fruit, light tobacco. Maybe my QPR favorite of the night. B+

1988 Pape Clement- harder, a bit tough, tea and leather more than fruit. Got better with air. B

Pomerol Flight
1988 L’Eglise Clinet - despite double-decanting, at first pour I thought this tough, tannic, and drying, though with some good presence underneath. Tight, but a revisit later in night was pleasant. I originally had B-, but ended up B.

1988 La Fleur de Gay- very flamboyant nose of kirsch and cassis. Lots of fruit, but this is also pretty tannic. You have to accept for what it is, needs mutton! B+/A-

St Julien meets St Estephe Flght
**1988 Gruaud Larose -**masculine, a bit of Cordier funk, leather, good dark fruit. B+

1988 Cos d’Estournel- tannic, flat, lacking in charm. B-/C+

1988 Montrose - tannic, still somewhat stern, but with solid black fruit core with some forest floor. B/B+

Pauillac Flight
1988 Pichon Baron -medium bodied, red and black fruit, pencil shavings. B/B+

1988 Pichon Lalande - powerful but elegant, rich dark fruits with herb and pine aromas, I liked a bottle of this Saturday but liked this one even more. A-/B+

1988 Lynch Bages - corked, alas

Red Graves #2:
1988 La Mission Haut Brion - burly, lots of tobacco/cigarbox, earthy, long. A-/B+

1988 Haut Brion -my WOTN. Elegant, long, classic with earth, cedar, tobacco. Well balanced, tannins are there but quite supple. A-

We finished with the 1988 Coutet. Dark gold/amber color, and cork slides into bottle. Yet the wine seems intact, wtith good ‘88 acidty and orange marmalade meets apricot fruit. Fairly full, good finish, this is probably an advanced bottle but it still shows well. B+/B

In group voting, the top wines were
Haut Brion 24
Pichon Lalande 9
LMHB 7
La Fleur du Gay 5
L’Egilse Clinet 2
Gruaud 2
(total is actually a point high based on our 3/2/1 system, but still think this is representative)

Personally I was quite pleased with the wines. There’s a clear vintage character of lots of tannin and not much in the way of gobs of fruit, but most of these have come into balance.

Grade disclaimer: I’m a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn’t drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

great notes Dale.
my top 3 were the Haut Brion, Pichon Lalande, Gruaud Larose. the La Fleur De Gay was aslo a top wine for me.
the food at Keens was a very good match for these wines.

Sorry I missed this. Looks like it was a fun dinner.

I have been a long time fan of the often maligned 1988’s. Most of mine are already consumed. Sounds like a bad bottle of Cos.

Coincidentally, I cracked a bottle of 1988 La Lagune last night. A bottle a few years ago was really lovely - light and cedary, but balanced and delicious. Sadly, this bottle, despite being very well-preserved, had tipped over into dried out, tart, old age. Oh well.

Nice notes, looks like another great tasting of some classic 80’s Bordeaux.

I’ve always been a fan of most of the 88 Bordeaux I’ve had, but I didn’t start really drinking them until 2008, so the tannins were already resolving. I’m a big fan of the '88 Pichon Lalande, Lynch Bages, Calon Segur, Pape Clement, Haut Brion, Rausan Segla, and the '88 Meyney has been surprisingly excellent as well

Maybe I missed it, but what does Keen’s charge per bottle for corkage?

thanks too dale. great notes. i’m on the same page as suzanne. those were my three favorites of the night, in that order. [cheers.gif]

one of our group arranged a set corkage at $200.00 for the table- it worked out to $25.00 per person last night.

Dujac is chardonnay i think

Sometimes I wish I lived in NYC. [cheers.gif]

Dale, I’m surprised you were only one point higher. Diane likes to vote (a lot) neener

I’m probably in the minority but Keens was not my favorite. I think we’ve done dinners at much better steakhouses although having bacon as an app is pretty cool.

Wines were a nice surprise. Many showed much better than I expected. Very happy Diane brought the HB. Was a nice pairing with my LMHB but the HB was definitely classier.

Steve, you should visit more often.

Very nice notes. I found a 1988 Leoville-Barton recently. May have to try it tonight.

Cheers,
Doug

Dale,

Thanks for the notes, and for again coordinating the event! I will echo most comments that I was very pleasantly surprised with all the wines and would not be too upset if any of them showed up at dinner (Except maybe the corked Lynch :slight_smile:.

My mental (I don’t take notes) scores on the Montrose and L’Eglise Clinet were a little higher than yours. I was really enjoyed the Pomerol’s quite a bit.

My top 3 were: Haut Brion -Pichon Lalande and L’Eglise Clinet.
Honorable mentions: LMHB & Gruaud Larose

Really fun Night & Thanks for Mutton [snort.gif]

Nano

Thanks for the notes Dale. I have a number of '88s, it sounds like it is time to crack a few. Has anyone had the LLC or the LP lately?

I had the LLC a year or two ago and it delivered.

couple of pictures

the aforementioned Bacon app


photo-83 by About camhi | Flickr

and the legendary Mutton Chop


photo-81 by About camhi | Flickr

A lot of good 88 bdx memories, and definitely a vintage for the anti-flavor elite. That chop looks awesome.

Agreed. Many, if not most, were rather lean, high acid and ungenerous in their youth, but a number of mellowed and come together nicely with age. The La Mission has been drinking extremely well for more than five years now and I’d put the Haut Brion up there with the Lafite for tops in the vintage. I used to have a bunch of the '88 Gruaud as Sherry-Lehmann had a ton of it and were blowing them out cheap around 2000, plus or minus a year.

Nice notes. I am a big Keen’s fan, although I have never really been convinced by the mutton chop. I’d stick with either the Chateaubriand (if you can get someone to split it with you) or the Ribeye. They are good with stems and decanters, but I also usually prefer to do the actual pouring of the wines myself. Anyway, sounds like a nice lineup!