Has anyone had any recent experience with these vintages? I know 79 was considered an early drinking vintage as was 81, but it appears that some wines are still performing well. A recent bottle of 79 Lalande was quite lovely. My greatest interest lies in Pichon Baron, LLC, and LP.
Cheers,
Scott
I think you are going to find these are wine by wine determinations. I have not had any 81s in several years, but I really have enjoyed a number of 79s I have run across (either remnants from my cellar or elsewhere) over the past few years. I agree that hte 79 Lalande is quite good. I used to love the 79 LLC, but the last time or two I had it the wine did not seem to be holding up as well as others.
Others I have really enjoyed the past few years have included Palmer and Ausone. Two just great wines.
Another wine to try from this era is 78 Domaine de Chevalier.
Pomerols fared the best in '79.
I’ve had several sub first growth 1981s Bordeauxs - including LLC, PLL, LMHB, etc (though not LP and PB). Generally, they are a cut below their California counterparts. “They” say that 1981 wasn’t great shakes in CA , but for whatever reason, those wines have aged very well, are still reasonably priced, and have generally outperformed their Bdx counterparts. A Dunn, Monte Bello or Montelena will make you much happier than any 1981 second growth, I think.
I’ve been enjoying some 1979 Margaux – drank one last week. It’s clearly an older wine, but it’s remarkably youthful, especially on the delicate Margaux nose. Smooth, soft, with lots of secondary and tertiary leathery notes to complement the softening fruit. In other words – excellent. It’s not going to be as big a Margaux as the '82 or '90, but I’ve found it to be delightful.
I feel the exact opposite - both vintages are in prime drinking form - just stay away from Leoville Poyferre - it was towards the end of their long decline and they didn’t start making great wines again until the mid 1980s ('82 was a fluke that it turned out so well) -
I have done several 1979 tastings, and I think it is one of those lovely underrated vintages which plateaued fairly early and have been lovely ever since. The two strong areas are Pomerol, as mentioned, and also Margaux, where Margaux, Palmer, Du Tertre and Giscours are all excellent. In fact, I have a particular fondness for 1979 Giscours, as it was my Eureka wine.
I have not tasted nearly as much 1981s, in fact my recent notes are for one flight served blind: Haut Brion, OK, LMHB, better and Trotanoy better still.
I really like this, but back to topic I also really like the '79 DDC .
I generally like '79s (I like brighter wines with good acids), but variable. Of ones listed by OP I liked Pichon Lalande and LLC, but had 2 poor Pichon Barons (but could be storage).
I’ve had generally good experiences with 1979. Not mind blowingly good but lovely mature wines. I’ve had more misses with 1981s but a Ducru 2 years ago was top notch.
1981 Bordeaux are lovely bottles if stored well. The right bank in particular is really good. The 1981 Conseillante is spectacular.
I had 1979 Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton and Haut-Brion in early May. All of them were still alive and kicking. None were extraordinary, but the Margaux was the best of the bunch.
As others have said, '79 Palmer is almost always very good.
Palmer, LMHB, Diamond Creek, and Beaulieu have been consistently strong performers from 1981 for me. Gruaud Larose & Montrose can be great, but I’ve entered lots of bottle variation with them.
Howard… I think you will like the wines more than I do today. A decade ago, they were quite charming. But over the years, for me the fruit has faded.
There are a lot of (still) fine 1979s (provided good condition):
1981:
generally I like 79 more than 81 …
My first purchase of futures was 1981 Ducru (split at case with a friend at $140 per case). So, I have a lot of experience with this wine - my six plus a couple of my friend’s bottles. I agree that it was quite nice. Elegant wine, not real powerful. However, I did not comment on this as I finished these a while ago and could not comment on how it is holding up. Nice to see it is still good.
Not surprising as you like much bigger wines than I do and 1979s are not big wines. But, you are correct that on some of the wines the fruit has faded (I gave the example of the LLC and said be careful). However, I have had the Pichon Lalande, Palmer and Ausone in recent years and they are very, very good.
Please be more specific.
Interesting. I had this wine when it was first released, but it was too expensive for me - it cost $30. I thought it was fabulous then - this had to be 81 or so.
Would be interesting to compare this with the Ausone.
THE sleeper of both vintages was CHATEAU D’ANGLUDET in Margaux - their '81 in particular is still going strong - and Margaux on a whole back then was producing some pretty mediocre wines outside of Margaux and Palmer -
In general (huge generalization here), 1979 is the better vintage than 1981. At least for current consumption.
Had my last 81 LMHB this year still good but getting old.
Drank both 79 & 81’s for many years-both years underrated.