NobleRottersSydney - 1986 revisited

Twenty Year Night; here’s a first. Wines from 1986. What’s still fit to drink at this age? Quite a lot, as it turns out…

• 1986 Marc Brédif Vouvray Grande Année

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  {12.5%, cork} Still only a mid-lemon colour, this offers a developing medium-intensity nose of woolly notes, with woodspice and secondary aromas, which are rather tricky to pin down. The palate is medium-sweet, with plenty of fresh acidity, medium body and intensity. The perfumed, developed, palate seems to encompass all kinds of sweet syrup flavours with a vague matchstick note. Balance across the palate is terrific, the finish is long, persistent and even, and there’s still plenty of time for the wine to peak. Tasted just as fresh after 2 hours in the glass. Great stuff.

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• 1986 Mount Horrocks Chardonnay

  Australia, South Australia, Mount Lofty Ranges, Watervale

  {12.8%, cork} ‘Cellaring recommended.’ Not something you read on too many bottles of Australian chardonnay these days. Now a deep gold with a fading rim, the aromas here are of sweetly rotting leaves, caramelized figs and honey; plenty of secondary interest, in other words. The palate is showing signs of greater age; bone dry, with quite low acidity, the flavours are of aged tropical fruits, toasty honey and some soft subtle oaky cedar. There’s not much apparent oxidation, but the wine is just starting to dry out now, evidenced by a short finish, despite the medium-weight palate. A bottle drunk last year was fresher; there’s nothing to be gained by holding this longer.

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• 1986 Lievland Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

  South Africa, Coastal Region, Stellenbosch

  Medium garnet red with a fading rim, this hardy survivor presents very correct aged aromas of leather, smoke, and cigar-box. The palate is very low-key, however, with low acidity and minimal surviving tannin. There’s a little soft burnished fruit left on the palate, which is quite lightweight and generally balanced towards the back of the tongue; unobtrusive oak helps holds the wine together. In all honesty, although its quite drinkable there are distinct signs of flattening out, and it’s clearly on the downhill slope of its maturity.

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• 1986 Brown Brothers Cabernet Sauvignon John Brown Snr

  Australia, Victoria, North East, King Valley

  {13.8%, cork} John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave? Well, no, actually – there’s life in the old dog yet. Medium garnet, with a only little fading at the rim, this has mid-intensity classic aged blackcurrant/cassis aromas, well-developed but not at all feral. A dry, low-acid palate follows the nose, the chalky tannins are still prominent, but still don’t really lift the weight beyond a light-medium level. It’s a very pleasant aged style overall, let down only by the length of finish, which is disappointingly short after such a lovely nose. Drink up, though, the cemetery gates will be coming into view shortly… (reloading these notes, I'm not certain this wine was made under the 'Brown Brothers' label, but there's no producer John Brown other than in connection with BB...)

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• 1986 Lindeman's Shiraz Bin 7200

  Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

  {12.5%, cork} The 'Museum Release' label. The odd wine out in a cabernet-dominated evening, this has clearly the lightest garnet shade of all the red wines tonight. The aromas are clean, though earthy, with a tarry leatheryness which grows ever sweeter as the wine sits in the glass. After ninety minutes it became quite candy-fruited, in fact. Dry, with low-medium acid and tannin, all the components combine to form a well-integrated wine with a rich, mellow mouthfeel, medium length finish, and a beguiling little dance between fruitiness and astringency at the back of the palate. Quite multi-dimensional, and although ready to drink is showing no signs of falling over. A surprise from perhaps an overlooked Hunter vintage, this really is a terrific wine.

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• 1986 Henschke Cyril Henschke

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley

  {12%, cork} This is a classy nose; aged herbaceous blackcurrent fruits with cigar/cedar notes. Has a lovely fruit purity to it. The palate is dry, with low-medium acidity, medium chalky tannins, deftly handled oak, and medium intensity length and weight. The faintly herbaceous note adds interest to the palate, the mintyness is the Australian give-away. Finish is quite long as well – this wine has come together nicely. It’s not austere at all; it has a sort of comfy-armchair feel to it, this one – and in the manner of old Australian cabernets, it seems to get sweeter as it sits in the glass. No hurry to finish, and although I don’t think there’s any improvement left here I think it’ll see at least another 5 years quite happily.

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• 1986 Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707

  Australia, South Australia

  {13%, cork} Far and away the youngest-looking wine of the night, this intense ruby wine presents a developing high-intensity nose initially dominated by vanillan/coconut US oak, underpinned with eucalypt and dark chocolate/coffee fruit. The dry palate is high in powdery tannin, full-bodied with plenty of oak, some leafy vanillan astringency and has a real solidity to it, like a large granite block. There is a suggestion of underlying greenness – some varietal character, perhaps? – manifesting itself as a reticent front palate, although the weight follows quickly behind. The finish is long, but perhaps not for the oak-intolerant. Drinking pretty well now, it’ll certainly age longer, although I reckon there’s a risk the fruit will fade out before the tannins. Still, it could be a close run thing. I must record that it was the crowd favourite among the reds on the night – for contemporary drinking my own preference is for the Henschke [86 Cyril] or Lindemans [86 Bin 7200]….

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• 1986 Château Cos d'Estournel

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  {12.5%, cork} A nose of classic leafy-but-aging claret emerges from this glowing garnet wine. The soft aged fruit continues onto the palate, the cigar-box notes fade away to reveal a wine drying out somewhat, with gentle tannin astringency the dominant note on the finish, as might be expected. Ultimately just medium-bodied in weight, the acidity is reticient, the palate very dry. The finish is somewhere between short and medium in length – I was expecting more somehow from a second growth, something a bit more multi-dimensional than this manages to be, perhaps. Anyway, it’s still pretty satisfying, seems to be close to the peak of development but will likely still hang on for a good ten years or so.

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• 1986 Château Villars

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Fronsac

  {13%, cork} An low intensity aged, but fresh, nose of red fruits and cedar. The palate is quite soft; dry, with low-medium acid, dusty tannins of medium weight, moderate weight with subtle oak. This wine really hangs on tannin structure; the fruit has subsided on the palate quite considerably, although what little is left displays ripe red remnants. Well balanced across the palate, the length is OK; it’s a pretty decent example of a honest dinner claret, and in all truth this one stands up pretty well against the more prestigious cru classe wines that flanked it tonight. Drink up in the next few years.

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• 1986 Château Haut-Bages Libéral

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  {12.5%, cork} More Bordeaux. There’s not much primary fruit on the nose here at all, rather a collection of varnishy, cedary, lead-pencil/graphite notes which suggest this wine is coming to the end of its maturity. The dry palate comprises medium acidity and chalky tannin, a mid-weight feel, a balance that leans generally towards the front palate, and a medium length finish which concludes very dryly and somewhat astringently. Quite classic in style though, and lifts considerably with food, although never really very exciting.

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• 1983 Château Rieussec

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  Not quite 1986, but close enough. Judging by the tartrate crystals washing around the bottom of the bottle, this tawny-copper-coloured wine was never cold-stabilised! In a decent-sized glass, it has a lovely aged nose of lifted apricot, woodspice, cinnamon, nougat and honeycomb. The palate weights in between medium-dry and medium-sweet, there’s still tangy citric acidity, a touch of oak astringency and plenty of honey and créme-brulée characters harmonizing in this rich, thickly-textured wine. The balance is even across the palate, the finish is medium-long. This has aged nicely and is probably drinking at peak now.

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A great night. Nothing over-the-hill or corked. Who’d a thunk it?