Nose: beautiful nose-cedar-complex
Body: full-even a bit young
Taste: fantastic-complex-smooth velvet
Aftertaste: very nice and long
18+/20
This wine was in perfect condition.
Awesome note John -
I remember tasting this out of the barrel and thinking it was the best Beychevelle I had ever tasted - and thought it was much better than the '85 - sold a ton on futures only to hear how it was “never going to come around” - a lot of my customers ended up selling it or trading it -
Nice to see it is developing - thanks -
My favorite Beycheville. It’s been in a nice place for awhile now.
Shhhhhh!
And by the way, this is an awful, charmless wine that is more akin to liquified Brussels sprouts than fermented grape juice. Moreover, whatever few charms it did have long ago dried up inside an impenetrable veil of hard, vegetal tannins.
Lets face it, 1986 Bordeaux is terribly overrated to begin with, perhaps offering a perverse “enjoyment” for viniferous masochists and Burgundy drinkers, but being of little value to the rest of us who enjoy life, apple pie and the American Way. The 86 Beychevelle in particular is the poster child for how bad wine making used to be in the pre-Rolland era before he brought light to that forsaken land. Fortunately, the auction market knows this and has kept its price rightfully low.
This has been a public service announcement
Pat:
I loved the 82 Bordeaux’s but most blind tastings in the late 80’s and in the 90’s
the 86’s would beat the 82’s.
In my opinion, Beychevelle has produced very few high quality wines over the decades. I’ve not had recent vintages, but the '82, '86 and '89 are all reallyl good right now – unusual for the property.
Wine making in Bordeaux has never been finer, I say! “Elegance” was just a brilliant marketing ploy by French vintners to justify over cropping, old barrels, sloppy elevage, low pleasure wines.
Give me a 2003 Clos de Lunelles any day.
I can only recall drinking 3 other vintages of Beychevelle, outside of the 1986. None of the the 3 other vintages come close to being as memorable as that very good 1986, which I’ve had 3X in various offline dinners.
Although I do have high hopes for the 2005 … when it comes around.
Come on guys! No one is buying – literally or figuratively – all this praise for the 86 Beychevelle.
I take off my tinfoil hat for a minute and everyone is trying to pump up their walking dead wines. Someone trying to sell their wines out there, I wonder?!?
Okay, I will step in here and prevent further travesty: I will buy all of your 86 Beychevelle just to get it off the market and continuing to give Bordeaux a bad name. Keep in mind, I won’t pay a lot, but tell me what you want for it. I’ll probably just use it to cook with.
Pat:
My record show I’ve had three-but this is the first in about 20 years.
It was purchased on release and stored well.
That is a good formula for having a good wine.
With no disrespect, but are tasting results from 1988 - 1992 of much relevance now?
Left bank '82 clarets are finally coming around and certainly have power and extract [hence Parker scores], but they will never beat '85 clarets for shear drinking pleasure. Broadbent on the '85s: “Not blockbusters …claret at its ingenuous best.” “Rarely have I mad so many consistently good notes on so wide a range of wines. …happily balanced wines.”
I have a lot of '82s and wish I could convert them to '85s.
Paul
Paul:
I didn’t buy many 1985’s just 82 & 86’s-not had any 85’s for a long time.