WTN: Ch. Lagrange St Julian 1962 and 1976

Two notes the 1962 the most recent, but I thought the comparison potentially worthwhile. Bought as a mixed case of aged Bdx at auction

1962 Château Lagrange St. Julien - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (1/5/2008)
Mid shoulder (compared to Top shoulder of a sister bottle), with evidence of past seepage and a slightly raised cork. Middle part of the cork started to break, but the bottom half came out all too easily.

Smelled ok though

Really quite youthful red-claret colour, with some age at the rim, but less than expected. Nose was initially an amazingly youthful blackcurrant. Some tobacco-smokiness came through and the fruit moved more towards the red fruit spectrum.

Good balance to the taste, with the fruit still going strong, but with (initially sweet) aged characters giving an interesting balance, along with the tobacco note. Acidity is well-judged, being refreshing without prominence and the finish is persistent.. The overall impression is a fine light-medium bodied aged bordeaux, still going strong and ideally suited to work with food. Complex but not overtly so. After a disappointing 1976, this was surprisingly good, albeit from a better vintage.

1976 Château Lagrange St. Julien - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (12/15/2007)
From a recent auction. Level a decent high shoulder, bottle significantly bin-soiled (this the worst bottle of the lot with label missing completely). Some evidence of leakage at top of cork, which with some encouragement came out in one piece, soaked the full length.

Colour is a reasonably bright slightly tawny claret, relatively weak at the rim.

Dominant mushroom aroma, with a faint whiff of coffee, with little change on swirling. The only fruit aroma is a background raspberry scent.

Little fruit left on the palate and to be truthful not much complexity. Acidity is nicely weighted and the net result is light & refreshing with a faint earthiness, but without anything to get at all excited over. Drinkable, but fading away for sure.

UPDATE: The night after (the half left in the bottle, simply recorked). On removing the cork, certainly more fruit. Still pretty lean and the touch of coffee/earthiness on the finish. Just a touch more fruit helps the balance though and it went very nicely with a smoked pheasant, salami & mushroom risotto. More enjoyable than just drinkable tonight.

Thanks for the notes, Ian. 1962 was a very good vintage in Médoc albeit overshadowed by 1961; certainly better than the over-hyped 64 and arguably 66. On the other hand I don't recall any 1976s, although I must have drunk quite a few lesser wines from that year around 1980.

It is interesting that, in spite of the lowish level, the 1962 was showing well. I have also had recent experience with an excellent Rioja 70 coming out of an even lower level. And, on the other hand, some bottles where level and cork look good can be very poor (see my very recent note on C. du Pape). This conventional wisdom seems to be only a very rough guide and, if the price is seriously reduced, I would be willing to take a gamble on a low level bottle.

Tim
No previous experience of 1976 Bordeaux for me. 1976 does hold a special recollection for me though, as this was the 'year of the heatwave'. Our summer holiday however was in the last 2 weeks of the school holidays and no sooner had we arrived in Cornwall (south-western most tip of the country), then a continuous thunderstorm set in. It rained for a week virtually non-stop, the power for the whole of Cornwall was out and we ended up paying £4 a gallon at the only hand-pump in the area, for just enough fuel to get us out of the county. We went to South Wales instead for the better weather.

Back to the wine, looking forward not just to the other 1962 Lagrange (which is soooo certain to be corked ), but also a couple of bottle of Montrose from the same vintage. The brains of the operation is happy as this is her birth year.

regards

IAn

Ian,
I was in Brittany when heatwave broke. I remember running down the beach at Carnac with a wall of rain nipping at my ankles. we managed to jump in the car before the storm hit. The next thing I know *BANG*! It was the closest I ever came to being hit by lightning. The communications tower next to the car got hit and went up in a cloud of sulphur.
I also remember one of the most expensive wines I ever ordered in a restaurant, when I started 'getting into' wine,, was a '76 Ch. Haut-Marbuzet, St. Estephe. We had decided to splurge $176 on this bottle. I remember being thoroughly disappointed since the wine was completely closed and tanic.

Simon

Ian,
Sort of what you would expect. '62 was a great vintage and better than '61 IMHO. '76 was fun to drink early but had no staying power. Still nice to confirm these expected facts.
Walt

I've enjoyed quite a few 76s, but most are in decine now, and the Lagrange was never a strong contender in the first place.

Nice showing for the 62, though!