A couple classic clarets with a red burg chaser

1988 Lynch Bages
This was singing from the pop and pour. Classic 80s Bordeaux signatures with some Pauillac gravitas thrown in. Cedar, graphite, leather, cassis, resolved and layered, complex and deep. Serious but not austere. Fantastic.

1985 Pichon Lalande
Compared to the Lynch, this is more feminine with a real green-herbal note, much more charming and elegant. Plenty of red berry fruit and brightness. I can’t really describe the green note, which is not a flaw or underripeness but rather interesting and refreshing, other than to say it is the house signature from that era. Also terrific but just a tick behind the Lynch overall.

2005 Rollin Pernand Vergelesses Rouge
Simple, charming, ready, with good depth and grip, really good for a village level. A quaffer.

[David M. Bueker]

Wow. Surprising that an ‘88 would outperform an ‘85.

I think in general 85>88, but the Lynch Bages is a top wine in 88 (probably my favorite 88 of what I’ve tried). I also think the 85s are getting more variable as they’ve turned 40, I’m not saying they’re over the hill or fading, but they can be extra tertiary these days. The 88 are more structured and the Lynch, this bottle at least, was in top shape, putatively at peak.

1988 claret has shown well in general last 5-10 years, Gilman released an article about it yesterday

I don’t subscribe to John’s reviews (or anyone’s), but that would be an interesting issue to read. I wonder what his favorite wines of the vintage are. 1988 has always seemed like a Left Bank year, but I’d bet some Pomerol are under the radar good.

I’ve saw the review and was glad to see how well the wines performed. I did taste the 1988 Pensee de Lafleur, and I can attest to how good that was. Early on those wines were not pretty. Hard, angular, tannic, although I did attend a 1988 tasting some years back, and the wines did not show well. I think that was a result of poor storage, since many of them seemed to be teetering, without quite falling off the cliff.

Looks like I should be on the lookout for a couple of wines.

The line on the '85 Bordeaux was that it was a vintage to be enjoyed young but didn't hold much promise for extended cellaring. I bought a case of '85 Lynch-Bages. It was good at first release, never went into a shell or turned grumpy, was excellent at 10 years old and also at 15. I still have a couple. The '85 Pichon-Lalande behaved in a similar fashion, but I prefer the Lunch-Bags.

-Paul W.

Actually I think John's highest scoring '88 might have been my Laville blanc.
But believe Lafleur, Conseillante, VCC, Trot got big scores on RB, HB and LMHB in Graves, Montrose and Pchon-Lalande in Medoc. Sure there were others.
While I appreciate the TNs I mostly subscribe to John for the more long form writing/articles.
While I think I liked '88s more than Mark they were always a bit hard and tannic, and I thought they would always be "steak wines." It's the last decade that they emerged as elegant roast chicken, pheasant, or goose wines!

I've seen some notes on the 88 Lynch that say it is over the hill, but the last one I had was just fine - not just fine but rally excellent.

I don't have that Pichon, but I was able to pre-taste samples of the 1994 (Bill Blatch brought samples from many wines before they were bottled) and found it to be surprisingly good. It is still holding well.

I also used to buy some clarets from the right bank in vintages that favoured them but didn't show well in the left bank. Great for blind tastings - have poured the 93 Trotanoy several times and no one has ever guessed the vintage correctly.

This thread reminds me, last year I had a bottle of the 88 La Fleur de Gay and it was really good. Good enough that I decided to track down a few bottles, which were quite cheap for the quality of the wine.

I tracked down a copy of John’s latest issue on the 88s, and there’s some big love with the likes of the 88 Haut Marbuzet and Chasse Spleen garnering scores of 93. I expected enthusiasm but not that much!