Heavy Cordier funk for the first hour and a quarter. Once it cleans up the aromas of luscious earth, cigar box and black currants become apparent. Fully mature and smooth the light to medium bodied cedary finish lingers on. At peak now and very friendly.
Such an f’ng great bottle of wine! Had the '82 and '86 this past year, big fan. Funny enough, was toying with opening a 2000 out of 375 tonight, but passed.
Now going on 2 hours and it is getting even better. The soft tannins are now more evident.
Big fan of this wine, this year…
I’ve enjoyed many bottles of this - it is my favorite '82 classed Bdx (together with Pichon Lalande’s). I like those 2 more than the '82 first growths, and I’ve had them all more than once - and one of those times all together and blind.
one of the first bottles I bought when I got into wine in 1984/5–stopped buying it when the price hit $15/bottle . . .
That has to be one of the funnier posts in this early part of the new year.
Brue
The '82 Gruaud and Talbot were my first case purchases. Sadly gone but fondly remembered. I’m not surprised to hear it is still going strong. Thanks for the note.
I paid $50 in 1993, clearly got ripped off.
thanks for the note. maybe the year to open my one bottle
A great bottle of wine.
Glenn what did you like more the 82 or 86?
You were a very wise man, David! I wish I had that prescience. I will say, some of my favoriteswines over the past 2 decades, which I have also tried in the past year, are the '82s and '86s from Gruard Larose and Talbot. And not too far behind, like a poor person’s classified growth, the Meyney. Epic wines. I wish I had a case of each right now.
The whole stable of Cordier wines was at an apogee with the '82s and '86s. I never had the '82 Meyney, but the '86 was excellent. The Talbot and Gruaud from those years were all outstanding, with the '82 Gruaud the best of the bunch. In '86, I thought the Talbot was just as good, sometimes even better than the Gruaud. All 4 wines were superb.
I think the 82 is a hair better and the 86 is also great.
Enjoying the '05 Meyney’s quite a bit
Jealous! The '82 GL is near the top of my wishlist. Hopefully I will get to try one someday.
fyi…if anyone is looking for the '86, I see that K&L Auction currently has a 6 bottle lot of the 86’s with no bids on them (ending in two days).
Finishing up from a refrigerated 375. For those about to rock keep in mind there is heavy sediment and this is not a pop n pour candidate. A 1 hour decant is highly recommended.
The emerging tannins promise a good life ahead.
To expand on David’s comment, I think the Cordier stable was rolling throughout the 80’s. Gruaud Larose in '82 & '86 were (and are) awesome wines built for the long haul, but even in the “off” years they were still producing very good wines - I still have (or have consumed) bottles from '81, '83 '85, '88 and '89 that on their given nights were all quite nice. To show how consistent they were during that time period, I once picked up a case of the '84 on close-out for something like $9 a bottle, and even that wine provided an acceptable “lunchtime claret” for about a decade.
I don’t find Talbot or Meyney to be quite as consistent throughout the decade, but in years like '82, '86, '88 and '89 they provided some pretty nice drinking as well. I don’t know if Georges Pauli is still alive, but he certainly knew what he was doing during that time period.
…We salute you!
Seriously I do love this wine. I still have a good handful of the 1982 and 1986 in the cellar. Thanks for the note!