Bordeaux 1998 blind tasting

Our wine club organized a tasting of 5 duo’s . Except the organizer , nobody knew the wines , only that they came from Bordeaux and from 1998 .

1 and 2 : Angelus and Pavie : the Angelus was more classic Bordeaux while the Pavie was amodern style version . Most prefered Angelus
3 and 4 : Mouton and Lafite : both excellent wines , a lot of different opinions . I prefered the Lafite , darker and more structured and so did most of us .
5 and 6 : Mission HB and Haut Brion . I think the Mission was a lesser bottle as it was the only disappointment of the evening . The Haut Brion was a star , lovely wine.
7 and 8 : Petrus and Lafleur : as good as the Lafleur was ( it is finally coming around ) , the Petrus was everybodies wine of the night ( it was a blind tasting ! ) . Very classy wine , super .
9 and 10 : Trotanoy and Cheval Blanc : again , as good as the Trotanoy was , the Cheval was even better . Close to perfection now .

Overal , almost unanimous : Petrus first , then Cheval . A lot of other excellent wines for third place : Angelus. Lafite and Haut Brion for sure .

At age 25 , these wines will not get better but most of them are still dark in color and will go on for decades to come .

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Awesome. I have a guys trip planned where I am in charge of the 98 right bank flight, which includes some of the wines you mention. Looks like they are in a prime window! Thanks for these notes!

Lovely notes - thanks Herwig. One clarification - when you’d at that LMHB was a lesser bottle, did you mean that it was disappointing because it was not a perfect bottle (no great wines only great bottles etc), or was it sound but clearly not in the same league? Thx

I think there are better bottles of La Mission 98

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