I also had an 82 Canon recently which was singing. You’re in for a treat!
A recent L’Evangile and La Dominque were both excellent. Not a huge experience with '82s, but what I’ve had has been excellent. Occasionally a bottle that might have been drunk sooner.
Excellent question. I do wonder if not many of them have been on their way down for a while now, though it’s a slow decline so wouldn’t feel any stress to drink them immediately. In comparison, I think there are a lot of ‘85s, 86s, and 88s that are still on their way up. In 20 or 30 years’ time, we may have more luck with the latter vintages. Not that the '82s will be completely gone by then but I do suspect that they (with some exceptions of course) have a different type of maturation curve, meaning they may be less suited for the very-long haul.
This is my thinking as well. If you drink a 1982 right now and have not had it before, you will love it and think it is excellent. But, with some, and not all, of the wines, if you had it 5 years ago you might remember as I do that the wine was more vibrant then.
What Eric and Howard say is more or less my take on a recent 82 La Dominique.
I’ve dunk my 1982s and only come across them occasionally.I would agree that they’re less vibrant than 5 years ago, but not tired or less complex. I’ve wondered if this is a storage effect as recent bottles were purchased on the secondary market. Though at 37 it makes sense that they may have started down the gradual slope of the far side of the hill.
IMHO most 1982 Bx are on their plateau of maturity - and it´s a very broad plateau, usually no hurry for the next years.
A few one can even still improve for another 2-5 years … although the bottle of LLas Cases I had 2 weeks ago was the closest to full maturity I ever had … and it came from my very cool cellar.
Of course it depends on ones idea of perfect maturity but a few wines might have been better a few years ago - and I agree that Cos d´E is among them … last time I had it it was leaner than a few years ago, acidity more prominent, fruit slightly less sweet … also Haut-Batailley … Branaire-Ducru and Gloria …
and the AOC Margaux is not the best in 1982 (1983 is usually better), so no surprise that Brane-Cantenac recently was not really singing … Lascombes was never a really great effort …
Some of the less famous wines are slightly over apogee - that doesn´t mean they are not giving still a lot of pleasure, but they were better a few years ago - Potensac for instance, Lanessan, Phelan-Segur … also L´Enclos, La Gaffeliere, La Louviere, Lagrange/Pom …
and Malartic-Lagraviere was definitely going downhill …
Of course it very much depends also on storage over the last 35 years … I´m writing here of fine storage, not shipping/storing issues …