My notes from a dinner tasting of 1986 Bordeaux. A vintage that some say will
be the last old style vintage ever made, with hard tannins, needing many years
to come into focus and balance. This review after 17 years was most
enlightening. We saw some bottle variation even with these brawny and
presumably fairly durable wines.

1990 Dom Perignon - fine mousse in a lively wine with some quite yeasty notes
in an otherwise closed nose, well balanced. With oysters on half shell, gravlax
and shrimp spring rolls.

1998 Ch. Couhins-Lurton - light in colour, with a slightly ripe nose, quite
flavourful and medium long. Went well with Asian seafood ravioli in barbecued
duck consommé. This wine is 100% sauvignon blanc.

With duck breast in sun dried cherry and red wine reduction (the wines were
tasted before, and with the food):

Ausone - the nose is starting to show some complexity, but I found the wine a
bit lean in the middle, although it came back a bit at the end. With time in
the glass and with food, it fared a bit better, and some cherry elements came
out, but overall a disappointing showing, particularly in comparison to the
wines that followed it.

Vieux Chateau Certan - darker, with an excellent nose of currant with a touch
of nutmeg, smooth entry, the wine firm in the middle but not hard, with good
length. My best of flight choice.

Canon - this was Canon simpliciter, not the Gaffer. Ripe nose, medium body, bit
less fruit but elegant and balanced with fair length, but drying a bit at the
end and with a very slight terminal bitter note. The wine was worse with food,
hardening up and seeming stemmier, which was a bit unusual.

Reserve de la Comtesse - Good colour, a sweeter but slightly dusty nose, the
tannins firmer, but drinks well now and even better with food. Decent but not
up to the others.


After the obligatory sorbet, which was too sweet and totally unnecessary (don't
get me started - this is a favourite complaint of mine - you want your palate
cleansed and refreshed, so what do these supposedly sensitive chefs do? They
offer up an adjunct dessert which does neither and in fact makes it harder to
taste the ensuing wines! If I ever do a sorbet in meals I am preparing, I use
an unsweetened Earl Grey tea or similarly unsweetened Rosemary sorbet. Don't
chefs drink wine? The rant is now over), the next flight was served with
roasted caribou with flageolets, pommes puree and veal reduction:


Talbot - I love this house - rough and ready, if normally a bit coarse, and
this vintage showed quite well. An excellent nose with big fruit and cedar, a
positive blast of concentrated flavour in the mouth, with good fruit, and
excellent length, the tannins acceptably soft. I noted however that the
overall impression declined with time in the glass.

Leoville Barton - an initial funkiness to the nose soon disappeared, though
what replaced it was somewhat reticent to show more than a core of sweet fruit.
This aspect should improve with more age. The tannins in this wine were quite
firm and it is built to last, but based on what I could see now, it was my
second favourite wine of the flight, based more on potential than current
showing.

Haut Bages Liberal - again, a slightly funky nose, but after that some bright
cassis fruit and vanilla. Smooth and adept in the mouth, the tannins easy going
now, the wine supple. This wine is ready now in the sense of being drinkable
with enjoyment, and while I do not believe it will get any better in the
future, I do think that there are sufficient tannins to maintain it at a
plateau of drinkability for some years.

Lynch Bages - this turned out to be my favourite, although for a time the
Talbot was in the running, before it started to go 'off' a bit, and before this
one started to open up. After that, there was no contest. Best nose of the
flight, with currants, vanilla, and a hint of raspberry. Sweet approach, mellow
and smooth in the mouth with good feel, good length, and the tannins only a bit
too hard at the end. Why oh why didn't I cellar this wine?


The last flight was served with a wild mushroom and cheese tart which in my
opinion admirably served the wines. A savoury course (albeit served before the
dessert) that wasn't so savoury as to interfere with the wines.

Pichon Lalande - I don't recall ever tasting a wine from this house and a
decent vintage that I didn't like - a lot (well OK, the 1990 was an exception,
but I'll allow one error every century). Marvellous depth and complexity in the
nose, with perfumed oak, ripe fruit and spice. Excellent balance and
concentration, and it drinks beautifully now, but really needs time to hit its
real potential. Of the wines in this flight, I judged it to be the best in
terms of current enjoyment.

Pichon Baron - sweeter nose, with vanilla and a touch of blackberry, a bit
sweeter on palate than the PL, but notably less concentrated, drinking well
now. It will not be as long lived as the PL but offers a tasty glassful now.

Lafite - now normally, I think of Latour as the sleeping giant that takes years
to come to the peak of drinking enjoyment, and Lafite as a much more feminine
elegant wine that can be enjoyed in relative youth. We didn't have the Latour
to compare this time around, but I'll tell you that if this Lafite is feminine,
its a bit more butch than any other vintage I can think of. Fascinating complex
nose with all sorts of subtle elements that included the usual cigar-box,
plummy fruit and some others hard to describe. It has very good fruit, and it
will need it - to outlast the very high level of tannins that make the
structure of this wine approach the monumental (but at this age, no longer
monolithic, for its elements are starting to peak out past the tannin). While
this wine is indeed showing more than the 86 Latour, which I last tasted about
a year ago, it would be an interesting lifelong exercise, had one the cellar to
support it, to taste the two side by side every 5 years, starting perhaps 5
years hence.

Margaux - I first recall tasting this wine about 6 years ago at a vertical
hosted by Corinne Mentzelopoulos in Vancouver, when it showed as dark, brooding
and still a bit hard to read. Since then it has picked up a really nice perfumy
currant/vanilla nose, and a lovely sweet entry, with excellent length, but it
still needs time.

With (or in my case, for) dessert, which was apple tart, we had the pleasant
task of examining two whites from this vintage:

Climens - Wow! Pineapple and coconut nose, great acidity and balance, complex
and with very good length. An excellent wine.

Lafaurie Peyraguay - in any other company, this would have shone much more
brightly, but the Climens was a hard act to follow. Good citrus/coconut nose,
long and sweet in the mouth (sweeter than the Climens) and very good, but not
quite in the same class, nor with the same degree of complexity and interest.