A group of us went to our friends cabin on Casper Mtn. for a repeat of the
Bordeaux tasting we had last year (different wines). We managed have the party
(Sat Oct 25) before the big storm, which rendered the cabin somewhat
inaccessible, and the mouuntain better for skiing. (I was up there tonight
skiing under the moonlight...beautiful conditions, but cold, -4 F.)

The wines:

Chateau Latour 81 Very dark, woody, black olives, very smooth finish. Darker
purple color than Mouton. Ripe olives and mint on second tasting, with a little
tobacco and smoke.

Chateau Mouton Rothschild 81 Cedar and lead pencil melded into sweet fruit.
Wood well integrated into flavors. Fresh mint hidden in background. Second
tasting (after a few minutes) a little fresh mint and broccoli.

Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste 82 Very big pruny flavors. Dark brooding wine. Almost
port-like in nose. Wood in background well melded into sweet flavors. Spicy
nose, with sweet and spicy finish. A little sawdust.

Chateau Leoville Barton 85 Deep purple color. Spicy, salty nose of strong road
tar, mint, and lead pencil. A little bell pepper detected. A lot going on
here.

Chateau Lynch Bages 85 Nose of fresh road tar and lead pencil. Very tannic
flavors with gobs of fruit (to borrow a Parker phrase). Still puckering,
coffe-like sweet tannins. A little brussel sprouts in nose, and fresh mint.
Needs five years.

All fill levels were at the neck, in keeping with my dry and somewhat warm
cellar, as well as the age of the bottles. What was interesting was how well
the 81s were tasting. The subtlety and elegance of that vintage did not go
unnoticed. I think I liked those wines better than the lone 82. Are all
Bordeaux now made in the fruity voluptuous style? All wines were opended for
one half to one hour before drinking. The GP Lacose and the Leoville Barton
were decanted. All were served with a simple meal of beef brisket, mashed
potatoes, peas and green beans, and no strong sauces. I think the Lynch Bages
needed decanting, but, like the Vancouver restaurant, I did not have enough
decanters.The Lynch Bages still seemed backward.

Parker panned the first growths from 81. Definitely not his style, but I wish I
had some more. Alas, I have only one bottle of 81 left (Lafite), two 82 (Gruaud
Larose), and no more 85s. One's cellar is never large enough.

Tom Schellberg

>Parker panned the first growths from 81. Definitely not his style, but I wish
>I
>had some more. Alas, I have only one bottle of 81 left (Lafite), two 82
>(Gruaud
>Larose),

I quite like the 81s - but warn that one shouldn't decant tooo far ahead as
they may break up in the decanter if left to their own devices for too long.

>and no more 85s.

I regret that I didn't buy much 85 - soft friendly early drinking wines for the
most part. Very attractive.

>One's cellar is never large enough.

It is axiomatic - one's wine collection will grow to fill all available space
allocated to it.

It doesn' matter how big it is, you'll fill it.

Bill
(whose downstairs bathroom has become a satellite cellar for BC wines)

(Bill Spohn) wrote:

> I regret that I didn't buy much 85 - soft friendly early
> drinking wines for the most part. Very attractive.

*If* the cork is OK.

From what I opened from my cellars recently, my only mag of
Sociando corked. The first two mags (of a case of 6) of Camensac
corked.

The problem does not seem to be limited to Claret. I bought 6
bottles of FX Pichler's Grüner Veltliner (then Spätlese, Smaragd
only came into effect with 1986/87 vintages). When I heard that
they had cork problems, I asked FX whether I could come to his
place and have the corks changed, and he agreed.

It was almost four years later that I showed up. He had not
cellared this vintage because of the poor cork quality, except 9
bottles he had been keeping for me. We opened the total of 15
bottles, 7 were OK, 8 spoiled, some more, some less. That left us
with just the right quantum to top up my 6 bottles and to recork
them.

M.

>I quite like the 81s - but warn that one shouldn't decant tooo far ahead as
>they may break up in the decanter if left to their own devices for too long.

Absolutely Bill, I did not decant the 81s, but I was surprised how well they
held up, especially from my warm cellar. We drank from the bottle within two
hours.

>I regret that I didn't buy much 85 - soft friendly early drinking wines for
>the
>most part. Very attractive.

That's why these surprised me, especially the Lynch Bages. This bottle seemed
quite young to me. Of course, older vintages tend to show a lot of bottle
variation. ...Alas, not another bottle of Lynch Bages to compare.

Tom Schellberg

(Xyzsch) wrote in
:

> Absolutely Bill, I did not decant the 81s, but I was surprised how
> well they held up, especially from my warm cellar. We drank from the
> bottle within two hours.

I thought drinking from the bottle was for wines in paper bags and not for
vintage Bordeaux. There is plenty of good stemware out there. The wine
would taste better from a good glass rather than from the bottle.

Fred.

I have just under a case left of '81 Haut-Brion. I have found that it
is beautiful after decanting 1 1/2 hours. It holds up long enough
afterwards.

In article >,
(Xyzsch) writes:

>What was interesting was how well
>the 81s were tasting. The subtlety and elegance of that vintage did not go
>unnoticed.

I don't have a lot of '81 experience. But those I have had were holding well-
good elegant acidic structure. Reminds me a bit of the '88 vintage. '82, '85,
'89 are all quite a bit riper from what I see ( and '86 of course is more
about tannic than anything else). I actually like all those vintages, each
putting its own face on the wines.
Dale

Dale Williams
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