Leoville Barton 1996 has been great yesterday. For me it was the “youngest” of all the 1996’s I’ve had so far. Blue-red color, black cherries and raspberries in the background, oriental spices and some herbs on the palate. Very good!
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This is really a stellar wine. Have only tasted it once in a big vertical but it was just head and shoulders a standout.
2005 Lagrange
Nowhere close to ready, leave for 5 or maybe closer to 10 years.
Not at all a bad glass of wine just still showing quite young.
Still quite purple.
On the nose cigar tobacco, cedar, coffee, cocoa powder, cassis.
On the palate this remains pretty tannic, albeit in a fairly powdery fine grained sense, and the dark toned fruit profile is still pretty bound up.
Over about four hours til finished at dinner this did not really open up to show a friendly side. I think it’ll be very good eventually just isn’t there yet. Similar to the relatively small set of other 05’s of my acquaintance, even lower tier classed growths don’t seem to be ready.
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I would say great value! Loaded up. These are seriously strong wines, with 16, 19 and 20 in particular.
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At the UGC, for one evening at least, the 16 Langoa showed better than the Barton. Would love to try them side by side today.
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D’Issan 2000 - very solid bottle enjoyed by everyone at the table today. Mostly red fruited with tobacco - but overwhelming response was how smooth this was. Probably at peak but don’t see this going downhill fast.
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1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild
After the disappointment of the ‘82 Lafite a few weeks ago I was a bit nervous to open this for Easter dinner, especially as the cork looked in similarly bad shape and the label was pretty stained. However the cork came out relatively easily and the scent erupting from the bottle immediately told me we were in for a treat. Given the age I just gave it about 2hours in the open bottle before pouring, no decanting. I would say the first ~hour in the glass was the best and a little more muted for the finals sips after that.
The nose was classic old Bordeaux, that beautiful old library smell of leather, wood, tobacco and earth. For me it still drank young, so much black fruits and cherry, powerful and perfectly balanced. Completely integrated tannins, so smooth and velvety. One of the best bottles of wine I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking … if only all of the ‘82s could be in this good shape
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I’ve been sipping on the 2000 d’Armailhac [Pauillac] the last few nights and it’s still doing well. Currant, cedar, and sandalwood on the nose and palate. Medium bodied, 12.5% abv, with a healthy garnet color. It was better a few years ago, but it’s not cracking up or anything. When the wines are young, these are good introductions to Bordeaux for those who are typically more used to California. It’s an A- today, probably a bit of a stretch, but this was an unusually vibrant bottle and strong cork.
I thought I had known the backstory of the estate/name, but until I read the entry in the recent Stephen Brook book, I realized there were more machinations that I had remembered. It’s pretty crazy, but I suppose any enterprise that has been around for hundreds of years will have some rebranding.
I made some (misshapen!) flatbreads to go with lamb skewers for this.
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1983 Canon.
Beautiful, as always.
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2009 Arnaud de Jacquemeau performed nicely tonight. Aromas of bell peppers, mushrooms, and charred pizza crust. In other words, it smells like pizza. (Yum). Medium- to full- bodied, soft and merlot-y, with nice acid, and a bit of that char carrying through. There’s a nice pop of mint and red fruit leading into a medium-long finish. Good stuff. Another success from the AOC Selections mystery cases.
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don’t often post TNs, but this one was exceptional.
1989 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (4/8/2026)
A recent purchase, base neck fill is encouraging but a fully soaked cork with some external dried residue has me a bit concerned. Not to worry…
Dark ruby red, minimal lightening at rim. Gorgeous nose right out of the gate. Classic cassis, moist earth, cedar, tobacco, and hints of fresh mown grass and iodine. Medium-full body, beautiful balance, resolved tannins, nice dose of dark fruits to mix with plenty of aged complexity. Medium-long finish. Classic ‘80s era Bordeaux, this is drinking exceptionally well now, on what should be a prolonged plateau given the ample remaining fruit. Outstanding.
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Wine Advocate’s 2023 in-bottle report is up. Interesting reading, though I’ve only taken a very quick pass through the main article. I’d say the overall bottom line is fairly similar to the Vinous coverage, but the intangibles/tonal read is a bit more positive (certainly as compared to Neal Martin’s writeup).
Not a vintage that I plan to buy at present as I’m trying to focus on ready-or-near-ready back vintages aside from '22 (wedding) and likely '25 (birth year). But for those with large amounts of cheap storage space and an appreciation for more classical wines, it seems like a vintage to consider.
[Edited to remove a categorical comment re: scope of Castaing’s coverage - looks like it wasn’t a full regional handoff of St Em, but rather just certain wineries on both banks have Castaing notes (Canon, Branaire-Ducru as random examples) rather than Kelley notes.] There’s yet another step toward this being a “joint report” with Castaing taking on a variety of estates on both banks. I don’t love the direction this seems to suggest, but understand that WK’s got a lot of irons in a lot fires…
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WA report also oddly spotty in coverage relative to past years. No notes on any of the wines in the Gonzague & Claire (Villars-)Lurton stable, nor D’Issan, Giscours, Sociando-Mallet…
I checked and there are 100 fewer notes in this report than last year’s 2022 in-bottle.
I can’t say I’m surprised at the lackluster reporting of Bordeaux. Admittedly I am biased, but the coverage has been abysmal, with one or at best, two articles a year. Last time I looked Bordeaux was still one of the most important wine region in the world,
I gave up my subscription.
Mark, who do you think has the best Bordeaux coverage these days?
I also subscribe to Vinous and feel like Neal Martin puts out a decent amount for a multi region critic, and appreciate that he is part of the Southwold crew for the coverage of those events. But would be interested to hear if you have a favorite.
Not Mark, but I’ll chime-in because I have a strong opinion on this.
Best Bdx coverage can be found here. Wine Berserkers. Seriously.
And I say this because I’ve found amateur-enthusiasts far more likely than pros to be honest about things . And many amateurs have excellent palates and decades of relevant experience. This isn’t to say all wine professionals are bad and should be ignored — no, not at all. I just think their opinions generally need to be taken with some grains of salt. I think the best thing to make working conclusions is to triangulate opinions from astute amateur enthusiasts, and then cross-reference those with wine professionals’ opinions.
Just my opinion. YMMV.
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The obvious people, Jane Anson, Vinous, Jeff Leve and Lisa Perroti Brown. I can’t say I see much alignment to my palate. Also Jed Dunnuck but his palate and mine are totally misaligned.
If you are interested in the older wines, John Gilman (disclaimer close friend) has really good but intermittent coverage. I understand he is about to publish a new Bordeaux article.
I think I have closer alignment to his palate than any other.
I agree with Brian, Wine Berserkers is a great source, once you figure out similar palates.
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Why do you think I started this thread? 
Certainly agree that the depth and breadth of Bdx knowledge on here is amazing. Truly valuable to me as I’m still very much on the very steep part of the learning curve.
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Thanks Mark.
The thing that holds me back from subscribing to Gilman’s newsletter is the fact that the subscription does not include access to back issues (or at least that is what I recall when I looked into it a couple years back). The depth of the notes database and ability to go pull past articles is one of the main things I appreciate on both RP and VM.
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I’m not quite this strict. I don’t need others’ palates to be similar to mine, I just need them to be consistent; that way I can figure out where we align and where we differ, and go from there. James Laube was a great example of this. There were certain wines he consistently liked that I did not like, and there were certain styles he consistently disliked that I loved; I kept an eye out for his relatively negative/lukewarm reviews of a certain ilk, and then sought-out those wines. But that was CA Cab, not Bdx.; but the concept is the same.