Thank you.
With vig that’s about market (WMJ says $30). Never had, but had a pretty good bottle (B/B+) of '82 last fall, and a very tired bottle of '83 few years ago. I think lots of '85s are great right now, but La Grave is definitely 4th tier Pomerol.
I won’t bid at Spectrum, but good fills (and I think of damp stained labels as a plus). But 12 bottles of an iffy wine is a lot.
You are most helpful, and make an excellent point. The high fill level and mold-stained label seem to indicate decent storage. Three hundred dollars plus premium will not likely devastate me, if the wine disappoints.
Recently, I have been buying six-packs and full cases at low per-bottle prices, because bidders seem leery of larger consignments. So far, everything has tasted better than expected…and been consumed faster than expected.
I had this wine app. 20+ and again 15 years ago … it was a good midweight and satisfying Pomerol (then) … without any exciting qualities but solid … however it will now be a fully mature wine slightly or more beyond apogee … IF you like this aged taste … and IF the bottles are in pristine condition it still might be worth purchasing for 25+ … but otherwise I´d rather pass … a full case is different from a single bottle to taste and forget …
Despite my risk management background, I like to live very dangerously, on occasion. After all, $300 could buy 250 baked roast-pork buns in Chinatown, instead.
If the auction lot were just eleven or ten bottles, rather than the full case plus their original wooden box, the adverse-selection factor would make a “pass”.
TN’s for the first two bottles: Mature, unlike me. Enjoyable, unlike me.
The wine is in very good shape, after 33 years. The year of 1985 holds a soft spot in my heart, being when I graduated from business school and moved to a Noo Yawk very different from that today.
Plenty of fruit, with notes of warm earth, pipe tobacco, and dark chocolate on the palate. Nose of blackberry, raspberry, smoke, and iron. Tannic grip despite its age, with ample acidic balance. Very dark core, and moderate bricking along the rim. Low in alcohol.
As a 1985 Pomerol for daily drinking, the purchase was worthwhile.
The 1995 La Grave a Pomerol is drinking very well today, sort of to my surprise.
Nice to hear 1985 is still hanging in there. I had some tired 81’s and 83’s in the 90’s era I think.