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Lawrence Leichtman[_1_] Lawrence Leichtman[_1_] is offline
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Default TN: 1982 Gruaud-Larose

In article >, Mark Lipton >
wrote:

> Spurred by John Taverner's note today, and by the happy coincidence of
> our celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary today, we opened a bottle
> of the '82 Gruaud-Larose with a dinner of broiled rack of lamb with
> fingerling potatoes. As I mentioned in John's thread, the provenance of
> this bottle was as iffy as it gets in our household: Jean had given it
> to me for my 27th birthday in 1986, and it had sat in my apartment on
> Manhattan for 2 years before traveling West to Berkeley in a rented
> truck, sitting in our crawlspace in Berkeley for 18 months, before being
> flown to Indiana, where it has slumbered since.
>
> 1982 Ch. Gruaud-Larose
> color: ruby red with a light hint of brick at the edges
> nose: initially, the "Cordier funk", later giving way to pencil lead,
> berry fruit, and herbs
> palate: medium body, meaty, herbal, minerals, pencil lead, solid core of
> fruit, good balanced acidity and a rich finish
>
> As John T. mentioned, the tannins in this wine are gone: it is as smooth
> and supple as one could hope. Also noteworthy, though, in this era of
> blockbuster claret, is the incredible sense of balance that this wine
> displays: it is big but graceful. It went splendidly with the simple
> lamb preparation and didn't change noticeably over the course of a 1 1/2
> hour dinner. IMO, no hurry to drink this up, but I also don't see it
> getting any better. OTOH, if your G-L has been stored at a constant 50
> F/10 C since purchase, YMMV.
>
> Mark Lipton


What a great example of the resiliency of wine. Too much is made over
perfect storage and preservation. Many well made wines can survive much
of what you throw at them.