Wow! That brings back memories. Back in the 1980s, Claude Kolm (a sometime WB’er) made dinner for another friend and me when we helped him move a sofabed. He served us the '70 Lynch Bages. It was superb.
If you’ve ever helped someone move a sofabed, you’ll know you should demand no less.
I remember a fabulous '70 Pichon-Lalande and Palmer eons ago, too.
It’s interesting that these are holding so well, because the vintage was quite approachable in the 80s.
Palmer and Ducru are probably my favorite 1970s (the latter purchased as a bin end for £15 a pop on one occasion), though Latour and Mouton are lovely in their uncompromising, tensile style, and good bottles of Mouton can be superb. Haut-Bailly and Pape Clément fly a bit under the radar in this vintage. There are also, I think it’s fair to say, some pretty nasty 1970s out there, with Lafite leading the pack as far as disappointment is concerned.
Last week I had a great 1970 Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre which, in terms of structure and balance, bore a strong kinship with the 1970 Ducru.
In the early 80s, I helped a good friend move from an apartment into a townhouse. He had us to dinner with 67 Haut Brion.
I am not sure Lafite leads the pack as far as disappointment is concerned. It certainly is in the pack, but Ausone may well lead the pack and Margaux probably is within a disappointing nose of the other two.
1970s I have had that I really have enjoyed over the years include
Latour - took many many years but after about 10 years or so it got really good.
Palmer - great wine
Montrose
Leoville Barton
Leoville Poyferre
Haut Brion
and now Lynch Bages
I forgot about Palmer. A friend got me in on a deal back then…Palmer 70 at $10 a bottle.
We drank a cheapie (La Louvière) a few weeks ago and it was absolutely delicious.
Not a contention I am going to contest at all strenuously, but my ranking of the Lafite derives from it having received pretty laudatory reviews (mainly from British writers, nostra culpa), whereas it would be harder to find defenders of Ausone and Margaux in that era of their histories.
On another topic, my experience has been that many of the 1970 Bordeaux require careful service to show their best, in particular careful decanting for the right amount of time. We got through quite a lot of Pape Clement at one time and found that two hours of air transformed it from lean and metallic to full and fruity; but it would have been easy to assume that, from where it was starting, air would only make it worse.
I was kind of just kidding saying that there were multiple disappointments. I am pretty surprised that there was major wine writers who praised the Lafite. They probably needed a different job, although given the ties between British wine writers and the trade, historically, they probably had one.
Harry Waugh was big on the Lafite, as I recall. Then again he pimped Ch Cissac big time. I did not think the Lafite as bad as Haut Brion and Margaux. Inded, it seemed just fine at the time. At the time the '61 Lafite was a legend. Nobody paid attention to Ausone until Pasca Delbeck came along.
Mouton was a bit of a brett bomb. Came around in the end tho.
La Mission HB was v good, as i recall.