March 29, 2024 - Base neck fill, cork soaked all the way up. Black fruit, cedar, smoke, hint of pyrazine/green pepper. Tertiary palate, structure largely resolved. Enjoyable but on the downside. Drink up.
February 6, 2024 - This bottle had one of the lower fills in its lot, so I hope that its siblings will show better. There seemed to be a bit of fatigue on the palate when I first opened it, and a nose that showed a bit of overripeness/surmaturité which might be attributable to poor storage or perhaps the character of the vintage. There is a core of pleasant red fruits, but it seems a bit one dimensional. Fast forward to day 2, where there was certainly improvement, but still a lack of complexity. Red currants, cherry and red plum fruits predominate on the palate, with a smooth tannin-free finish. This is a fruit forward wine, and I'd be curious to pair it blind with a CA cab from that era. From memory, it is quite similar to an '82 Clos du Val Reserve cab, so I think this might fool some people if served side-by-side.
January 26, 2024 - Unfortunately this bottle was withered and faded with no fruit and not much depth either.
November 11, 2023 - At home with the Jacob’s, Phillip of the valley with Vane and Phil Erw
No tasting notes as it’s been months
The wine was very well liked not over the top
October 11, 2023 - @Niku SF.
Super expressive nose. Some green tobacco. Some coffee grounds. Some brett. Some mushroomy tertiary notes. Not a ton of fruit at first (Coravin).
Dry. Medium body. Elevated acid. Medium minus tannins. Satiny.
It’s got great old bordeaux stuff going on. Opened up with time. Fruit didn’t show up. But there were some old dusty bookstore notes. Some really savory almost cheese rind notes. Hint of red fruit - faded red stewed cherry? Stewed tomato? Stewed peach? It’s something high toned. Calling up a memory of a Chateau Magdalene.
July 4, 2023 - mid shoulder at best, the cork was very soft and the wine gone - not spoiled but gone
June 30, 2023 - An Epic Summer Wine Weekend - Year 2; 6/30/2023-7/2/2023 (Muskoka, Ontario, Canada): [Tasted Single Blind] This pours medium garnet in the glass with medium bricking. The nose is just beautiful of dried flowers, charcoal, ripe plum, dark cherry, and touches of leather and tobacco. The palate is deep and rich with medium minus velvety tannin and medium acid. There is a lovely mesquite smoke note along the lengthy finish. This is just great and quite appealing stuff. Awesome showing from this pristine bottle.
June 6, 2023 - This was paired with the '82 Cheval Blanc and you would have thought there would have been only one winner. The CB edged it on elegance and 'class', but the La Lagune looked and tasted like a 10-year-old despite being 40 years old. The CB began fading in the glass around the 45 minute mark, the La Lagune kept going for several hours. The CB costs around £1200 a bottle and the LL around £140 a bottle. Extraordinary value! Given the choice of one bottle of CB or 9 LLs, I know what I would go for. For pure elegance and excitement the CB edges it, but for substance and concentration the LL has it's nose in front. Either way, both were a real treat.
February 1, 2023 - a bad bottle. Second time I’ve had a 82 La Lagune that was bad.
December 26, 2022 - Still drinking incredibly well. Lots of life left after 40 years.