I attended a 1998 right bank Bordeaux dinner last night. Wines were served single blind except for the Angelus which was an add in at the last minute. As always, I find blind tastings fun and intellectually stimulating. I did not take notes but some of the top wines were Quinault L’Enclos, Pavie and L’Evangile. Quite a few of us thought the L’Evangile was the Pavie. Both though finished in the top 3. I’m not a big Pavie fan but every time I’ve had the 1998, I’ve loved it. The Quinault, while a bit more modern with oak and blueberry notes was delicious with impeccable balance and this is a great buy compared to prices for the other two. The L’Evangile was flashy, showy and overall a flamboyant wine. Angelus was also very good but tannins closed finish down pretty hard.
Wines that showed poorly were the Pavie Macquin that was just a mess with a chemically infused unnatural greenness and 1997 Pahlmeyer Merlot (ringer) that just seems to have fallen apart. I liked this in its younger years but age has not been kind. I also thought La Gomerie and Monbousquet did not show well. But the biggest surprise was Cheval Blanc. Not a terrible wine but it certainly did not live up to its class.
Other good but not great wines were La Tour Figeac (another well priced wine), Tertre Roteboeuf, Canon La Gaffeliere, and L’Eglise Clinet.
We had two whites to start which were the ’98 Pape Clement and Laville Haut Brion. I preferred the Semillon driven LHB which had good minerality and acidity to the fatter and rounder Pape which has more Sauvignon Blanc. By the way, if you read the Suckling review on the LHB, it is a horrible descriptor for the wine. Really nothing like what I drank last night.