WTN: Friday afternoon with '82 Bdx

I seldom take off for a wine lunch, but Mark offered up a 1982 Bordeaux tasting and I couldn’t resist. Dave had my car, so Betsy dr0ive Craig and I up. Cheeses (Comte, a Delice soft cheese , and my new fave, Flory's truckle), charcuterie (lonza, bresaola, cecina, pasthourma, pate, head cheese, rillettes, smoked lard), Bucatini alla Amatriciana. Plus a taste of delicious Beluga to start.

NV David Leclapart “L’Apotre” Champagne
Believe this is non-dosage, but while crisp not the least bit austre. Fresh pear and apple, a little pie dough, smoke and chalk. Liked this a lot B+

1982 Ch. Prieure Lichine
Tart and a little mean, not very 82ish. One person thought corked, I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I wanted more. B-/C+

1982 Ch La Lagune
More fruit, a little barnyard, surprisingly a little hard,.B

1982 Ch Sociando Mallet
Barnyard funk, no real Sociando green, a little tailing on finish. I’ve had better bottles but this was just drinkable. B-

1982 Ch Batailley
I think only bottle this day I’d never had before. I think I could count the Batailleys I’ve had on one hand. Resolved tannin, cassis, pencil lead. I think I liked more than most, nice fully mature Pauillac. B+

1982 Ch Beychevelle
Finally, this is what I think ‘82 claret is supposed to taste like. Lush cassis and black cherry fruit, tobacco, and a little earth. Gets floral in glass, plush wine yet with a backbone. A-

1982 Ch Grand Puy Lacoste
Very Pauillac, black fruit with some cigarbox and pencil lead hovering in background. B+/B

1982 Ch Ducru Beaucaillou
Just lovely. Totally ready but with lots of life left. Black plum and currant, coffee, cigarbox. Long finish. Gets a earthy forest-floor meets truffle note. Very long. A/A-

1982 Ch Pichon Lalande
Lovely, powerful yet elegant, slightly high toned, herby notes over solid dark fruit, classic, A-

The 3 Leovilles were served blind, but others accurately guessed the non-corked wine (and the corked one by elimination):


1982 Ch Leoville Barton
Corked.

1982 Ch Leoville Las Cases
Lots of ripe plush fruit, not so much else going on. Tight? B/B+

1982 Ch Leoville Poyferre
Red and black fruits, saddle, cedar. Lovely showing. A-

Mark had a mystery wine, but I didn’t guess on wine as foil slipped and I was pretty sure I knew. After others got wine I guessed ‘83 on vintage. It was the 1985 Jaboulet “la Chapelle” Hermitage. Dark berry fruit, mint, grilled meat, smoke. Lovely bottle. B+

Really fun afternoon! Thanks to Mark and Nancy for hosting

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

A great afternoon, and some good wines, a few great ones. And thanks to Dale, we had some incredible charcuterie.


I had been planning a 1982 Bordeaux tasting for some time, and yesterday, over lunch it finally took place. Simple food, cheeses, charcuterie, and a Spaghetti Amatriciana. Slightly mixed bag; many showstoppers, but also a few sleepers that I had high expectations that were just fine, and only Beychevelle excelled. The next group of wines all showed very well except for the corked Barton.

The wines were served open apart from the three Leovilles and the Hermitage. Very experienced crowd, so no surprise that they got everything right.


La Lagune
Perhaps not the best bottle, but remarkably fresh. The acidity was high, good fruit up front, but tailed off in mid palate, and seemed thin slightly towards the finish. Excellent with the food. 90

Prieure Lichine
Very advanced and the only bottle approaching its dotage. Not much fruit, some earth/mushroom flavors. Had a much better bottle bottle a year or so ago. 83

Sociando Mallet
Tannins just about resolved. Rustic, quite funky. Massive finish. Some fruit. Controversial wine, some really loved it. I was ok with it, but preferred most other wines. 89

Batailly
If there was one wine here that I thought would be the surprise of the tasting, this was it. Except it wasn't. Very linear, clearly Pauillac showed some fruit, but the mid palate merely showed up rather than pushed and the result was a pleasant but not great wine. 90

Beychevelle

Change of pace. This was a softer wine with hard core structure. Beautiful on the day, complex, good fruit and a serious violet flavors, and just the hint of the tertiary stuff. Long finish. Excellent wine. 95

Grand Puy Lacoste
This was a solid wine, which I enjoyed more than most. No great finesse here, it was solid, got from opening to end in record time. Then a medium finish. 92

Ducru Beaucaillou
Absolutely stunning wine that improved in the glass over an hour. I scored it just a little higher than a fine example of Pichon Lalande, but the contrast between the two was fascinating. The Ducru was classic, elegance personified, all the elements beautifully arranged, and a massive but understated finish. At its apogee. Clearly first growth in quality. 98

Pichon Lalande
Always a slight crap shoot, it can be a 100 point wine, or it can score in the low nineties. Today, was one of the better examples. Dark fruit, the slightly herbal green element that I associate with the high percentage of Medoc Merlot, and just the beginnings of tertiary elements of leaf and mushroom. Long and layered on the finish. Again a gorgeous wine 97

Leoville Barton
Corked. Good stuff underneath. Pity!

Leoville Las Cases
Easily identified. A good solid wine, but seemed limited. It may seem fanciful, but the better wines here were incredibly long, and seemed to have edges and layers which expanded with time. Not so, the Las Cases, which seemed have decided where the limits were and kept well within them I saved a glass and retasted it last night, and again had the impression that it was not going to venture outside its box. 94

Leoville Poyferre
A fully resolved, gentle beautifully made wine, that continued to improve in the glass. Still showed young, with great fruit, spice and leather. Arguably the best value here. 95


Mystery wine
Jaboulet Hermitage la Chapelle 1985
Took the group less than a minute to identify as Hermitage, and another minute before they decided on Jaboulet. The vintage took a little more time, with most guesses centering around 1978 . But eventually the slight bret gave away the vintage. Lovely wine though, showing a bigger, more aromatic heavy fruit profile than the 1982 Bordeaux. Interesting contrast. 95
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Thanks for the notes. I still have a few bottles of 1982 Pichon-Lalande kicking around. It was always my favorite from the vintage and it's good to know it's still going strong.

-Paul W.