Drank over the weekend, and I think it’s still a little early on these. Cedar, soy/balsamic and currant/cranberry aromatics, dose of red-fruited goodness in the mouth, slightly drying at the finish. Good now, better later is my guess.
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Wow! We rarely see comments on Pensees around here!
Le Dome is also thinly mentioned. But I have not liked Maltus’ wines
Le Dome is absurdly overpriced for quality.
It’s barely worth the price when it is offered by Last Bottle as a mystery wine.
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I had the 1988 recently; lovely wine. The Grand Vin must be incredible
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Scary cork, but no match for the Durand. This was fabulous last night. Classic Bordeaux notes, black currants, potpourri, tobacco, cedar, and some beefy savoriness. Still generous on the palate and holding up remarkably well for a 43 year old wine. I thought of opening this after @Robert.A.Jr’s recent posts on the 83 Gruaud Larose (a wine I recently won a bottle of at auction and hope is as good as it sounds) and am glad I did.
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Love to see reports of '83s. Birthyear for me. I’ve had a couple of duds, but had amazing Margaux, DDC, and the biggest surprise of them all, a '83 Meyney was absolutely brilliant.
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It’s been a handful of years but the last time that I had that 1983 Cantemerle, it was wonderful. So glad that it showed well for you.
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Thank you K&L Insider’s Advantage!
Well don’t leave us hangin how is it?
Ha! Tomorrow, when I finish it! Also had a Goodfellow Pinot open…
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Not a bad night’s work.
I would have called this northern Rhone blind. I like it. But not sure if it’s worth the hype. Still glad I have a few more.
2022 Château Tronquoy
Dark opaque ruby, very viscous, high extract in the glass. Nose is interesting, lots of black pepper, allspice, chocolate, licorice root, black/dark fruited, graphite, some alcohol too. Palate is medium+ body, ripe, just a touch sweet, dark fruits, earthy, not overly complex but still interesting. Finishes medium length with very firm and grippy tannins and very dark fruits.
Not sure what to think of this. It’s almost northern Rhone in some of the elements. It definitely is not elegant, it’s powerful, but I’m not sure if the quality of the fruit supports the winemaking here. It definitely punches above its weight, but I’ll wait a few years before reserving judgement.
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I’m hoping the 22 and for that matter the 19 Tronquoy will shed some fat with a bit of bottle age. Presently they’re a bit bigger and darker toned than I’d like. There’s some good refreshing acid and saline and the structure is all pretty nice, so I think there is a good chance that letting the oak integrate and tone down brings these to a nice spot.
Canon 1982. Still in great shape; archetypal 1982, with more than enough acidity to support its opulence.
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Our Burgundy group did Bordeaux on Thursday night. It was a lot of fun with excellent (mostly) wines.
We had a lot of wines, so I did not take precise (or really any) notes. The 1985 Cos D’Estournal , 2000 Talbot, and 1985 L’Arrosee were all excellent wines that were perfectly mature. This consistency is why Bordeaux is so popular.
I note a 1986 Pape Clement because I bought some of this and liked it a lot but finished mine a long time ago. It was really singing. Fabulous wine. This was before Pape Clement went to the dark side, and this wine has me really wondering why they ever went to the dark side.
A 1999 Trotanoy was fascinating. 1999 is not a great vintage and the wine showed that. Yet the wine clearly also showed the excellent terroir and winemaking of Trotanoy. In some ways, it was interesting to see the terroir without all the fruit to see what the essence of the property is.
In a sense a 1981 Magdelaine was similar to the 1999, but this wine was just in another level. Here, there was enough fruit to go with the terroir and winemaking to make this just a fabulous wine. Very long finish. Wish this property still existed. A favorite of most people at the dinner.
Another huge favorite was 1982 Calon Segur. I have now had this wine several times and it is always just simply great. Wish I had bought this. No lack of fruit on this wine.
The 1996 Leoville Barton was also excellent. I have a couple of bottles of this and wonder if I should keep them a few more years.
The HUGE disappointment of the night was a 1986 Gruaud Larose. When I first opened this, the fruit was clearly apparent. This was going to be a great wine. By an hour or so later when we started to drink it, the truth became clear - corked. Horrible.
The last flight of reds was fantastic; a 90 Leoville Barton, an 85 Leoville Las Cases and a 90 Leoville Las Cases. This bottle of 90 Barton was much better than a bottle I had a few months ago. That bottle seemed slightly over the hill. This one was fabulous. Really rich and long. And, both wines were bought at the same time (as futures) and were aged in the same wines cellar (actually cellars) ever since.
I love LLC and these wines were no exceptions. I probably prefer 1982, 1986 and 1989 to 1985 and 1990, finding the last two to be a bit soft in comparison, but there is no doubt that these are really excellent wines from excellent vintages.
Loved a lot of these wines and it was an outstanding tasting. But, I would have to put at the top the 1981 Magdelaine and 1982 Calon Segur.
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Excellent timing, I just made the decision to bring this wine to a dinner tonight
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Consistent with what I have said for many years, this famed château excelled often in those weird years as well.
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Robert,
I don’t know that I would consider 1981 to be a weird year. I did not buy that much in 1981 (bought Ducru futures, my first futures) because by the time they were on the market 1982 futures were available. But, the ones that I had were good, esp. the Ducru. But, the Magdelaine was the best 1981 I have had.
I started drinking wines before all the superstar vintages of the 1980s. When I started, I had wonderful wines from great vintages like 1966 and 1970, but also excellent wines from vintages like 1962, 1967 (right bank), 1971, 1978 and 1979. For me, 1981 was somewhere it that group of wines, good vintages, not great ones and not weak ones like 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1977. My guess is that given the vintages you like (1983, 2001, 2004 and 2014, for example), that you would have liked wines from these sorts of vintages. Now, of course, in those days there were a lot of underperforming properties, but I avoided a lot of those because my father picked a lot of the wines, not me.
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Love hearing you and @David_Bu3ker talking about your influences from your father, and in particular the cellar that David inherited. Such cool stuff. I certainly learned a lot about wine from my father, and we still to this day share a lot of wines together, but he’s pretty much drank through his stuff and is now hitting my stuff, lol. I guess at 87 that’s acceptable. And I love to spoil him back since he carried my big butt for 26 years through eight years of college!
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