I hope we can keep it that way. Prices are already rising.
Greetings Claus,
Wow- I had not seen your thread. Pretty cool that two people here had the same “off vintage” (and a hard to find one at that) about the same time.
And fear not- I not only forgive it, but embrace it. That was one of my bottles and I was the crazy guy who got the case direct from Moueix precisely because I had hoped the wine would prove useful for certain limited purposes. I have to give it 2 stars in the grand scheme of things- and in a blind tasting with other wines it would get throttled pretty soundly- but it does have a future use, and will be special in its way.
To everyone else- thank you for the kind words. It was an amazing night for me- to have so many vintages of one of my favorite wines of all time in one sitting, and a nice mix of vintage styles and reputations as well. My brain was on overdrive writing those notes.
On the market situation- with the generally known disclosure that I have a large stash of Magdelaine and have been adding to it avidly and thus could be seen to have a financial interest in any advice- I can tell you that the market is finally picking up in the past 12-18 months, and fairly quickly.
The days of readily finding good vintages of Magdelaine for $50 a bottle are over. $80-100 is the new general baseline for good vintages, and $150+ for the best vintages. I am also noticing that the wines are moving more briskly through the marketplace when they come up for sale.
I do not think the current activity and pricing levels will change all that much in the next couple of years from where they are now, but 10 or 15 years down the road- especially given the incredible longevity of the wines- I do believe there is Engel or Gentaz potential here.
And so I buy- mainly to have the supplies to enjoy this wine for the rest of my life on a regular basis, but more secure in knowing that if for any of a number of reasons I feel compelled to sell some portion of my holdings, I am not going to lose money.
Agreed. While I think they are accessible much sooner, from a long term maturity/plateau perspective I am learning to have a very Lafleur mentality when it comes to Magdelaine. That was unexpected.
I haven’t been collecting Magdelaine but that is obviously my error. These wines sound delicious.
Probably a dumb question, but was your host ‘John’ John Gilman, whose next issue of VftC is due to report on the ‘merger’ of Magdelaine and Belair?
Correct. He and I have been planning to do this for quite a while. No mystery intended- I just don’t like naming everyone at a tasting in an online forum of any kind unless I ask first since not everyone will be a regular poster or even a member. And we got too absorbed in the night for me to ask anyone.
Hi Tom,
Glad to hear that - I’m looking forward to that article. I’m fortunate to have intact cases of the 1970, 1985, 1998 and 2008 - all bought following John’s earlier reviews. All seem to have performed well at your event.
Nigel
That is a good set of cases to have. Nice find on the 1985. I have never been able to locate the wine- but following the tasting I undertook a very aggressive search that yielded 9 bottles, along with several each of the 1987 and 1989.
I am going to wait and see how things go this fall, but if I can interest the group again- I would be all for going back to the 80s-00s and doing a round 2 for every vintage we did not taste this time. If I can track down some 80, 81, 83 and 84- we will have all the bases covered I think.
Thanks Tom for making the tasting happen- it was a great lineup and lots of fun to compare the younger vintages of Belair-Monange and Magdelaine. Mark Golodetz had offered a bottle of the 2009 Belair-Monange to include in the lineup, but I had passed, figuring that we already had way too many bottles for one night (which was true, but not all that evident when I went to empty out the open bottles the next morning and found that many had already been emptied the night before!), but wish I had said “yes” to him now, just so we could have had it in the lineup for comparison’s sake. The contrast between the two properties was very dramatic, as was the contrast between the newer Belair-Monange and the 1990 Belair Dale brought, and it was a real eye-opener for me, as I had expected very different results. I think we all came away with the impression that it was a terrible idea to plow Magdelaine into Belair-Monange (at least the way the latter wine is being made right now), though I would suspect none of us thought this going into the evening. A lot of food for thought came out of that tasting… The bottom line seems to be that everyone who loves classically-styled Bordeaux would be very well-served to be scouring the market for extant bottles of Magdelaine, as it may well prove to be a far more savvy investment than chasing the hype machine on the 2018 Bordeaux vintage.
3, 2, 1 . . . .
WineSearcher is currently frozen . . . .
Turns out I actually own 3 bottles of the 2008 Belair-Monange, bought I don’t know when, from I don’t know who, for reasons I can’t recall. I am confused by Tom’s note above; both still primary but ready to drink? Is it your assessment that it will never develop anything other than the primary flavors it offers now?
I suppose I should find these and drag them into the drink now holding pen.
Hi Neal,
I should not be answering for Tom, but my impression was that the 2008 Belair-Monange was still not ready to drink and I would leave my bottles alone for at least another eight to ten years. Whether or not it will develop more classical layers of secondary complexity remains to be seen, as it was not showing them at our tasting, but they could (in theory) still be lurking below the surface. It is the Moueix family’s first vintage in complete control of the property, so interesting for historical purposes at the very least. But, it is still too young for primetime drinking to my palate. It was my favorite vintage that we tasted from Belair-Monange, but it was rather dwarfed by the '08 Magdelaine served alongside of it…
All the Best,
John
Bottom line : This^
Well said John. For my part- I do not think the wine is going to develop those classic layers, or at least that when it happens the structure and fruit will overwhelm them, and that is why- if they were my bottles- I would opt to drink them young. Time will tell, but I think for pure drinking pleasure- now is better than later. But the wines will surely develop more- that I will readily concede.
And on your note above- thank you as well for being the perfect partner in crime. Noone else could have really pulled together all the right people with great bottles to make this happen. It was an incredible tasting- maybe even an important one 
Definitely an important WB thread.
I haven’t tried to jump on the Magdelaine bandwagon but I did buy three bottles of 1992 last year when JJ Buckley listed it, as it’s my older daughter’s birth year and she likes red wine. I’m very pleased to read your note.
Thanks John. I have in a while been planning to buy more Magdelaine, but this was the catalysator.
Could not resist ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}