pH in this context is an index of soil type. Wines from limestone soils are low pH; wines from gravel soils are high pH. Beyond this, rootstock, climate and harvest date also play into the equation. You can pick very late on the limestone côtes of Saint-Émilion and still have a low pH, and pick very early in the Médoc and still have a rather high pH.
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The du Tertre you really need to be drinking is the 1979.
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Truly. I am quite sensitive to TCA (not as much as some friends but more than many critics I know), and the failure rate with 1980s Bordeaux is just painful. Often, of course, the lines are blurred, with the medicinal aromas of brett-derived volatile phenols making the TCA harder to differentiate.
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Anyone tried the 18 Giscours? Was it made in the same way as the 2020?
FWIW I enjoyed an ‘82 du Tertre a couple of years back. Here is my rambling note on the experience.
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Yes; we used to be able to pick it up for less than $30.
My birth year and my favorite Bordeaux. Where in the world did you get that wine!
Bern’s.
They must have had a lot of this as I went twice in a handful of months right before Covid, and the Somm brought it out to the group both times. Not sure if it was on the list.
Wasn’t that the major issue with Ducru from the 1980s? My miss rate with them was painful, especially with the 1986. I bought six from a close friend of mine about 12 or so years ago. Most tainted. I stopped buying Ducru for a very long time.
That was taint from the chemicals they used redoing the cellar, as I understand it. The bottles the Chateau has confirmed as solid are spectacular though, imho.
Which restaurant? Berns?
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The reconditioned ones are good ime
We had an unreconditioned 1990. Faint but not overwhelming taint.
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thats interesting to me, because with all my complaining about the time I got into Bordeaux, I would say there is absolutely no denying that the region has been evolving constantly. I would say my gripe (and it kinda seems like quite a few in this thread) in this thread would be more along the lines of its been so in flux lately that it is attempting to redefine its identity and its hard to keep up.
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One of the great scandals of the late 80s. Today, they would never have got away with it. Thousands of bottles sold over several years knowing full well that most of them were faulty. What added insult to injury was the reconditioned library release - thereby acknowledging the problem, without offering to replace the ones already sold. Worse still, there are still bottles being sold at auction without any mention of the risk. I wrote to iDealwine a few years ago asking them to mention this - to no avail: right now there are bottles of 86 and 88 on sale at a cool 180€ and 150€ per bottle.
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There is an OZ Clark program where he travels the west coast of America visiting different wineries. at harlan the owner presents, what he calls are perfect wines, Oz Clark to the consternation of the owner say he finds perfection boring. They then visit the late Sean Thackeray and he says, it has gotten easier to make wine but that does not mean the wine has gotten better.
I find myself looking for wines with character and this is something I find very difficult to do in Bordeaux. A few years ago at a big tasting in Düsseldorf, I was initially excited to taste so many big names but was disappointed at how repetitive the tasting became. The Cru Bourgeois was the saving grace, a Chasse Spleen that was in no way perfect or could compete on the body builder stage had real character.
Domaine de Chevalier seemed to offer at a fraction of the price what the big boys offered at extreme pricing.
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makes sense to me. I am imagining a difference between stuck in place wines and soulless ones. I guess re-reading your post you were kind of talking about both vs just stuck in place.
It’s hard to find much soul when you are making wines at 15%. At those levels, it’s very hard to differentiate Bordeaux from any other high alcohol region producing high octane wines from Bordeaux blends.
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I had some bad 88 PLL years ago.
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