Last night I opened the 1998 VCC. I had not tasted this for some months, ever since I had it blind and was so enthralled I went out and bought a case. This was the first bottle. Decanted two hours before, it still took a couple of hours more to unfurl completely. A magnificent wine in early maturity. Fruit, minerality, violets, and two thirds in, that burst of fruit so characteristic of great vintages of VCC, all held by a massive but soft tannin structure. The finish was extremely long, waves of flavor coming at me for a full minute. I am being conservative with my score, but I do urge you, if you can find it, to grab it.
98+
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Grabbed some in Hong Kong.
This VCC 1998 (18/20) was great in a VCC verticale in december 2008. A wine was, in the same context, even more better : the stunning VCC 1989 (19/20).
Bad influence, I picked up a case today.
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You will thank yourself, soon enough.
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every time I open a '98 right bank, I find myself wanting more and more of them for my cellar . . .
Iām 1/3rd of the way through the '98 VCC case I bought 5 years ago and already starting to wish I had more!!
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So, based off the stellar reviews here I picked up a bottle of this and a pre-Valentinesā dinner at home with my wife seemed like the perfect opportunity to check in on this. Note - we have pretty extensive left-bank bordeaux experience, and a lot of experience with younger/more affordable right bankers, but this is to my memory easily the most āhigh-endā expression of mature Pomerol we have tried.
My bottle was in absolutely pristine condition - cork looked almost suspiciously good, Decanted for 3 hours before really digging into but tasted along the way - honestly should have decanted longer.
All of your notes resonate with me - this is a behemoth of a wine, the nose was absolutely intoxicating - as good as it gets for a wine aroma for me, it had everything, deep, dark red to black fruits perfectly ripe, deep earth, rotating coffee, chocolate, mushroom/truffle aromas, and an ever increasing cooling freshness from a slight mint-inflected pyrazine note.
I did not enjoy the taste as much as the nose unfortunately. While it was structured still and definitely not hot/overripe, the intensity of the wine on the palate was almost overwhelming and yet still felt like it was tucked inwards, so much material there but it wasnāt completely showing off yet. I unfortunately paired it with a pretty rich dinner and so there was no relief going back and forth between the food and the wine.
Did continue to improve after dinner and continued to relax, lightening up and showing off purple flowers and more fresh red cherry notes.
I am conflicted in the end because Iām not sure what my final takeaway is. I really donāt feel like the wine is clumsy, there is so much there that is still well-contained in the wineās structure. For my palate I would say a strong HOLD for well-stored bottles of this, I donāt think itās close to itās peak. Or maybe we just arenāt right bank people.
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Iām betting you would like the 98 Magdelaine based on what you just wrote. It has that same killer nose but is more deft on its feet, more red fruit acids. Had them both side-by-side recently. Both killer wines. Down to my last 2, ugh!
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What a great review and thank you for posting. I love the ātucked inā description; I found that with the 2005 recently. I thought of it as yet to unfurl.
The 1998 VCC is backward, not as much as Trotanoy, Cheval and Lafleur. I suspect there is some evolution variability as my last bottle while backward seemed to have āunfurledā a lot. Maybe try again in five years.
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Thanks - havenāt had a Magdelaine yet and will have to check them out!
Curious at Carterās comments, we opened a bottle. It has been a few years, and I was wondering how it had evolved. The answer: glacially.
As noted, the nose is superb, and the longer the wine was in the glass, the more it unfolded. As well as the red and dark fruit underlay, there was spice, violets, tobacco, and licorice. The palate also had bunched up initially, but with time, it too began to open, but only after a further hour in the glass, did it fully show its true potential.
The finish was long and multilayered. It is now twenty five years plus, but still needs some patience. For me though, it is a wine for the ages,
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Wonderful reading here. Aside from whetting my appetite for some future wine occasion, this thread only confirms my feeling that the best 98 Right Banks need plenty of time still (even the Magdelaine for my money, unless one has plenty of it).
Very tempted to get a half case.
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What do these go for today? A 3 handle?
Around $300 in Europe, $350 here.
Had a 2005 this year. The last vintage of the āoldā style before the winemaking changed. Not even close to open. At least another decade needed for aging. In the big picture, is $300 so outrageous for a classic wine like this?
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Everyoneās got their own view of looking at it.
$300 is a lot for sure. When if it has 20 years of good provenance, thatās a good deal. I pay $1.25 / year for storing a bottle (more in the US). So that in itself is $25. Plus if you take even a nominal 4% opportunity cost of parking the funds aside, a $300 bottle with 20 years of age is akin to buying a $140 bottle of new vintage and storing it for 20 years. And thatās just in financial terms - I get thrill from cellaring wines but also need to balance that with consuming now.
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With totally unproven, āBeckstofferā vineyard labeled withes with no track record going for $225-$275 at release, Iād say this is a better deal. Of course we are looking at a luxury priced wine for sure. Then again my wife once tried on a pretty average looking Prada sweater years ago in Paris priced at $800. I guess at least you could wear the sweater more than once!
FWIW the 2005 VCC at K and L goes for about $350ā¦
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I remember tasting the VCC En Primeur. It was extraordinary, and with Ausone my two favorite wines of the vintage, and I have been following it ever since.
Year in, year out, it has dueled with Petrus and Lafleur as the top Pomerol, and even at $300 undercuts both. You can get eight bottles of VCC for one bottle of Petrus and four for the Lafleur. So I really donāt think it is overpriced in relative terms. In absolute terms of course it is; $350 for a bottle of wine is ludicrous.
I have opened three bottles of the ā05 this year. One half bottle and two fifths. I have more than enough stashed that I realize that although the wine is not ready, it is still immensely satisfying, and works quite nicely with a long decant.
Over the last decade, I have been collecting VCC including wine from its golden age from the forties and fifties. I hope itās ok to mention but I am planning to do a 45 bottle vertical over a weekend in October. I have already done a fourteen bottle version a couple of years ago (Vieux Chateau Certan 1943-2010), which was incredible; enough to convince me to convince me to find some more of these extremely rare older wines.
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