We had another great lunch yesterday with some fabulous wines! These wines showed classic Bordeaux structure, classy tannins, and supreme elegance - lovely stuff! We had a lunch with, 1) Spanish Chorizo Risotto - pickled beets and blue cheese, 2) Duck French Onion Soup -focaccia crouton, mustard gruyere fondue, and cracklings, and 3) Mignonette of Beef - rosti potatoes, bearnaise custard, and asparagus. See the attached pictures . The wines were all 1989s - Figeac, Angelus, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Leoville Baron, and Lynch-Bages. FYI - the really cool art deco label for the '26 Leoville Barton is really the '89 . It’s a Rudi’fied bottle from a recent REAL bottle of this consumed earlier this month . 1989 Château Figeac (St. Emilion): What a fabulous showing for this one. Touches of ripe fig and bright cherry fruit, ripe black tea, tobacco - balanced and adequate levels of acidity. Really nice texture here and came off as having a elegant style to it. Lovely! 2nd place overall with 20pts.
1989 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou (St. Julien): Touches of green tea infused black cherry is what I have written down first. More green tobacco and cedar with lots of structure. Black currant fruit is poking out a bit… Loaded with structure it seems and just didn’t grab any of us - still seemed stacked though. Last place overall with 5pts.
1989 Château Lynch-Bages (Pauillac): Best of the lunch by a wee bit - all of these wines were impressive though. Lovely cigar box spice and leather, slight notes of asphalt and black currant, touches of high toned meats. Complex and complete showing for sure and will go strong for years to come. Really liked this one from Pauillac! 1st place overall with 23pts.
Overall a great set of wines and a really nice long lunch! CHEERS
Nice lunch Jon! I’m really surprised by the weak showing of the Angelus? Love the '89 Lynch…all of my 750’s are gone, going to have to crack that virgin case of mags soon .
Wish I had been there to enjoy these wines with you. I notice that you aren’t suffering on the food courses with lunch since I left. Looked yummy indeed !
I plan to open a bottle of the 1989 Chateau Montrose this weekend, and will post my notes on this thread. That’s as close as I can come to vicariously being part of the Lunch Bunch, while struggling to see our weather improve here. Next week’s forecast is finally looking favourable. Hope so, as we will be driving to Lake Louise shortly to attend The Wine Summit.
The 1989 Lynch is the best Lynch I have had the luck to drink. It is a simply amazing and amazingly complete wine. In a massive offline a few years back , not only did it show better than the 1982 and 1978 versions of itself, but it exceeded the 1990 and 1986 Montrose (the latter still a baby) and just bested, IMHO, the 1982 Montrose. I wish I had a chance, or could afford, to get my hands on some more.
I’ve had the 89 Lynch twice and it’s done nothing for me. Had 85 Lynch at the winery itself served by the technical director and thought it was off. Have had similarly frustrating experiences with 89 Montrose–tried twice and was entirely underwhelmed. Is there something stylistic here? Are LB and Montrose more austere, structured, “claret-like” producers? Or maybe I just need to try the 1990’s if I like more fruit?
Lynch Bages was the first Bdx I fell for and the 89 is one of the best ever to my palate. There were no losers at this tasting, these wines sang and I would happily drink any of them again. The Fiegac was the best from that Chateau I have ever tasted and the surprise of the bunch for me. Red fruited, perfect balance, long finish with the acidity an acid head burg nut loves. Damn these were good! As far as the food goes the first two courses were world class and the third was no slouch either. I could pull off the risotto and the beef at home, I think the French onion duck is beyond my skill set. This was one of the best of our many outstanding lunches. The company is always good and I’m looking forward to the next.
Did I mention how incredible the wine and food was?
The 1985 Lynch is the favorite wine of one of my buds and we’ve probably shared over 12 bottles across the years. All have been magnificent. The 89 Lynch is also a work of art. Now the 1989 Montrose is a backward monster with the fruit and power to last two lifetimes.
I remember back when Wine Spectator was touting 1989 as the vintage of the century. I was a poor college kid who mostly drank 12 packs of Milwaukee’s Best, but saved up $79 for my first Lafite. That was the vintage that started this craziness. (Still have the Lafite). Great notes and a fantastic lunch.
'89…hahaha my first yr of college…not sure I knew wine existed outside of mad dog 2020…as 4 beer?..the beast!! $28 per keg in forest city iowa!!! Those were the days
That '89 Lynch-Bages is a winner! I have some '90 Lynch in the cellar that I’ll need to find soon… A bottle of the '61 three to four of years ago really got me to fill in a few more bottles of the '89/'90 duo.
Thanks for posting Jon. Indeed, a very good flight of wines. All the wines were good with my scores deviating only 2 pts in the top 4 wines and all will likely continue to improve with more cellar time…this is especially the case with the Ducru, which was really tight and ungiving at this time. They Lynch Bages to me was slightly above the rest, primarily because of it’s depth and mid-palate intensity. Thanks again…
. The wines were all 1989s - Figeac, Angelus, Ducru-Beaucaillou, Leoville Baron, and Lynch-Bages. FYI - the really cool art deco label for the '26 Leoville Barton is really the '89 
. It’s a Rudi’fied bottle from a recent REAL bottle of this consumed earlier this month ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
.
![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
.
![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}