TN: Mature and Maturing Bordeaux

WINE TALK
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MATURE AND MATURING BORDEAUX - Oslo (19.10.2012)

  • 2004 Roses de Jeanne / Cédric Bouchard Champagne Blanc de Blancs La Haute-Lemblé - France, Champagne
    Some citrus and yellow apples, a bit shy on the nose; decent length, a hint of sweetness, fresh. (88 pts.)


  • 1982 Krug Champagne Brut - France, Champagne
    Tiny bubbles; wonderful mature nose, coffee, chocolate, complex; fresh, very long and balanced, milk chocolate, yellow fruit. (97 pts.)
  • 1978 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne
    Mature smell, almost tropical fruit, apricots; vinous and very complex, a slight sweetness, yellow fruit, lemon-candy, caramel. A very good bottle. (98 pts.)
  • 1996 Krug Champagne Brut - France, Champagne
    Small bubbles, moderate amount; sourdough and toasted white bread, full nose; very high in acidity, slightly bitter and long finish, decent fruit. An intense wine in need of more cellaring, I am a bit uncertain whether it has enough fruit to stand the test of time. Wait 5 years before the next bottle. (93 pts.)
  • 1982 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut - France, Champagne
    Zero mousse; wonderful mouth feel, fine acidity, fresh but lacks a bit in the mid palate. (94 pts.)


  • 2000 Coche-Dury Meursault Les Chevalières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault
    Very convincing nose, lime and a hint of nuts and cotton candy - but the wine seems very tight; minerals/crushed stones, lanolin, moderate acidity, fine length and finish. (95 pts.)
  • 1990 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
    Some nuts, cellaring aromas, sea weed; some butter, develops in the glass, lacks a bit in complexity for being a truly great bottle. (93 pts.)
  • 1988 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot Blanc - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru
    Anonymous nose, sea and sea weed, nuts; salty and mature, lots of acidity, tight, could have had more fruit (92 pts.)


  • 1976 Château Langlais Puisseguin-St. Émilion - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Puisseguin-St. Émilion
    Cork was suggested by some, but it was just some strange and green notes, dark fruit; dark fruit in the mouth as well, good balance, but a bit short. Nonetheless, impressive for a minor estate and a 76. (88 pts.)
  • 1986 Château Léoville Las Cases - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
    Very dark, a tiny brown rim, deep core; smoke and minerals, flint, moderate fruit - dark, very youthful; minerals tight, long, balanced. Far too young. (95 pts.)
  • 1986 Château Mouton Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
    15 h decant. Same cold cellar from release. Very, very dark; lots of black currants and other dark berries ; very fruity in the mouth, fresh, full, lots of tannin behind the fruit. Long and balanced. More up front than expected, perhaps helped by the long decant. (97 pts.)
  • 1962 Château L’Evangile - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
    Good, deep fruit, complex, soft and completely mature. Easily identified as a Right bank wine by the others, who had this blind. (94 pts.)
  • 1964 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
    Very dark, red but with a long bricking rim;tobacco, dark fruit, structured, balanced, and long. I thought I detected some Cabernet. Served blind, and I guessed left bank from the 80’s. Very impressive bottle, and very different profile from others from the 60’s. (96 pts.)


  • 1952 Château Lafite Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
    Minerals, decent fruit on the nose with a hit of black currants; tobacco, lots of acidity, linear, long. The fruit is clear and fine, but there could have been more of it. (93 pts.)
  • 1955 Château Lafite Rothschild - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
    Dark core; tobacco and deep fruit, fresh, linear, mineral driven, some complexity, long and very clean, elegant. More opulent, in relative terms, than the -52. (95 pts.)
  • 1952 Château Canon - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
    Very fine complexity, earthy, surprising amount of tannins, powerful first attack, fine length but fades a bit off a bit too soon for a spectacular bottle. (95 pts.)


  • 1959 Château Latour Grand Vin - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
    Insanely dark; coffee, underbrush, mint, lots of power, complex nose; unbelievable long, unbelievable powerful and youthful, lots of primary fruit, minerals, at the same time elegant. Lots of things going on. Tannins are there of course, but they are mostly hidden behind the thick fruit. Not fully integrated yet, but I do not mind. Will live forever. WOTN (99 pts.)
  • 1964 Giacomo Conterno Barolo - Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo
    (During these years allegedly from Ginesco) Entered blind to illustrate the similarity between Latour and Monforte. Very clean and bright wine; beetroots and licorice, rosehips, good red fruit. A younger bottle would perhaps have more illustrative. (94 pts.)


  • 1945 Clos Fourtet - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
    From a very cold cellar where it had been laying since release. The more disappointing that it was a bit unclean on the nose, some astringency, good fruit, but I have had better bottles. (88 pts.)
  • 1948 Pétrus - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
    Extremely dark, violent acidity, very tannic – actually the most tannic wine of the night, some dark fruit, linear, superb length and cleanness. Initially a bit monolithic, but gained depth and complexity in the glass. (97 pts.)
  • 1947 Château Calon-Ségur - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
    A bit musky, albeit wonderfully complex nose; meat juice, good length, fresh and lively. (94 pts.)


  • 1967 Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium Graacher Himmelreich Riesling feine Auslese - Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer
    Very fresh and clean, minimalistic. Youthful. Got somewhat lost, being tasted after Yquem -59. (91 pts.)
  • 1959 Château d’Yquem - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
    Fill: bottom neck, wonderful amber color. Very long, surprisingly much caramel, orange peel, complex. (97 pts.)
  • 1963 Fonseca Porto Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto
    Not right. Spirity, volatile, rather thin fruit. Had some qualities, would have scored in the low to might eighties. Knowning how wonderful this could be, that would not be fair. NR (flawed)
  • 1950 Antonio Jose da Silva Porto Colheita - Portugal, Douro, Porto
    Very pleasant, a bit alcohol shining through. Some complexity, rather elegant. (90 pts.)


  • 1961 Louis Roederer Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne
    Actually some mousse; mandarines, deep fruit; very convincing in the mouth, long, clean, some bite in the finish. A perfect specimen of the vintage. (97 pts.)
  • 1964 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon - France, Champagne
    Nill mousse, but clean and crisp, a tad short. (83 pts.)
  • 1964 Louis Roederer Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne
    This was added to underline how glorious the 61 was. Some sweetness, lovely clean flavor, fresh and intense, perhaps is lacking a bit in concentration. This was outstanding as well, and the statement about the -61 failed a bit. (94 pts.)


  • 1989 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune Vendanges Tardives - France, Alsace, Alsace AOC
    Served blind. Round, slight petro, rich - but still fresh and intense, long. (93 pts.)

Yet another testimony to the ageability of Bordeaux. The two bottles that I believed would be safe as regards oxidation because other bottles from the same batch had been superb, turned out to be the only two sub-par bottles. Ageing is a lottery, and yet again we were lucky.

So many bottles shone, but above all the immortal Latour 59
Posted from CellarTracker

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Lars,

Welcome. That’s a hell of a way to introduce yourself to the board! Remind me to visit Oslo more often - definitely the land of cold cellars. I had always assumed that the alcohol laws and taxes were so prohibitive that nobody collected wine there. However, I do recall in my youth when working in Oslo, raiding my boss’ cellar and finding numerous bottles of Krug and DP. His obvious look of suffering as I pillaged them in my drunken state, claiming they were recompense for all the Viking raids, is still quite vivid in my mind!

Dan

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Holy crap

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Thanks Dan,
There is an added alcohol tax per bottle (about 7 USD), irrespective of price. It may have mattered when these bottles were young, but not at the current price level, unfortunately. Some were original Norwegian bottles (the Norwegian Wine Monopoly had the politics of releasing Bordeaux to the market after cellaring them some – often many - years, without being allowed to follow the marked price, only the original purchase price). Most bottles, however, were from Italian, Flemish and English cellars.

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Great wines and great notes, thanks for that…

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Great notes Lars. Welcome to the board. Good to see such an excellent showing of these older wines. I have one bottle of the 59 d’Yquem remaining and waiting for the right time. Sounds like it is drinking quite well. It’s always been one of my favorites.

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Although I do not have a deep bench if experience with Latour, I’m always struck how older bottles come off as primary. Could it be the slowest evolving bdx of them all? Excellent notes and thanks for sharing!

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Well done Lars, great line up.

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Faryan,
As regards older Latour’s slow development, I think the answer is simply ‘yes’. Not so sure about recent decades though. The 86 and the 59 did bear some resemblance (it has more fruit than most 86’s), but 59 was the big older brother. Still, Latour 86 would need perhaps another 20 years to reach its optimal drinking plateau. Lafite 86, however, is even far more closed - perhaps in need of a good 35 years.

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Hi Lars,

These bottles were drunk over what period?
What was your decanting policy by and large?
Were you able to buy them from the state monopoly?

What a wonderful experience!
Few natural wines anywhere can age that well.
Great Bordeaux defies time.

Alex R.

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Alex,

‘Unfortunately’ most bottles were bought from various cellars in Europe. Belgium and England have some wonderfully cool cellars as well. Some of them were from the Monopoly but bought decades ago. All older bottles were slow-oxygenized, opened at about 5 PM, except for the champagnes (but I am not opposing doing that as well). Since it took until late night/early morning to work through these wines some of them had a rather long micro-oxygenation. That also explains the progressively shorter notes.

It is interesting to follow the development of such older wines in the glass, and a steady hand without tipping the bottle up and down for each pour keeps the problem of sediment to a minimum. The 1986s, the vintage port of course and the 64 Rinaldi were decanted, otherwise no decant. At hindsight the 59 Yquem and not at least the 59 Latour should have been decanted. Tasting the small left-overs the evening after, none of the originally sound wines had fallen apart.

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Thanks Lars,

59 Yquem is a great memory for me. Thanks for the notes.

Anthony.