First bottle from a case of 6. Labels badly damaged but cork was in great condition, came out intact. No bricking at all, dark purple almost violet in the glass. Surprising colour given the age. Very shy nose and little fruit on the body but the tannins are powerful and rustic. The general flavour profile is reminiscent of sandalwood and Provençal herbs, rosemary, garrigue. Very long finish, splitting image of Ribena. Despite the age, this showed much better after some aeration with more blackberry coming to the fore.
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Lovely matured cabernet. At peak now. I was afraid to decant too much this wine but this was an error. It improves strongly after 30min carafe as fruits waking up and everything getting in place.
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Dinner from Isfahan (Chicago, IL): Sadly this bottle wasn't as good as my last two experiences with this wine. The nose shows a very mild hint of pyrazine, as well as quite a bit of dried herbs. The palate is a little plummy and shows a fair bit of ripeness and alcohol, but I wouldn't say it's over the top either. I know what this wine can be, so it's definitely a little disappointing.
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Very nice, good quality and long cork, better than the one from Vega sicilia yesterday... Garnet color, the center shows as mature wine, there is some bricking at the rim. Strong bouquet of lovage which dissipates a little as the wine is exposed to air. The lovage also appears on the palate, but in fainter notes. Otherwise there is a strong tannic grip, and a touch of softer sweetness. The wine is quite intense and has a good finish but my feeling is that the tannins have eaten up most of the fruit and that the wine is well into its tertiary stage. At this point I want to repeat my earlier recommendation is: drink up unless your wine is in larger format bottles.
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Mas de Daumas Gassac Tasting and Dinner (Restaurant De Lage Vuursche, Lage Vuursche, NL): Mathusalem. An amazing wine, this has everything, freshness and fruit, firm but ripe tannins, cedary and meaty, cool and minerally but generous and elegant, incredibly youthful, still floral and evolving at a glacial pace in this grand format, excellent length. Stunning.
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This needs a good decant. Starts out leather and orange peel, and then moves to dark cherry, blackberry, rose with a whiff of camphor. No apparent tannins. Rich, elegant and in a great place. Time to drink this one. Very good.
Happy 15th anniversary to CellarTracker and Eric! I don’t know what I would do without CT.
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Garnet red, dark core and scarcely bricking at the rim.. On the nose: leather, cedar, a touch of violet and a whiff of Camphor. (My wife detected prunes stewed in cognac..) On the palate an up-front sensation of tannin, which subsides and then reappears later; apart from that the wine is silky smooth and refined, yet packs a punch. It has aged gracefully but will probably not further improve. There is a chance that the tannins will overpower everything in the next 5-8 years. Drink up what you have left in the cellar.
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Dinner at Sun Wah (Chicago, IL): This is just as I remembered it being. Old cabernet flavours, with a touch of green herbaceousness dominating the leather and earth. Crisp and clean though, with no funk, the fruit is dried and secondary, but certainly not dried out. The palate is a continuation of all of that on the nose, and the finish is silky, with good concentration and length. I suppose there's a reason that this was the first Languedoc wine I've ever bought (and I've been buying wine for a decade now).
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Flickinger Tasting at The Casino (Chicago, IL): A beautiful nose of cedar, dried herbs, and some classic old cabernet flavours as well. The palate still has generous tannin, but this bottle shows beautiful secondary characteristics. A bit of dried figs and dates, a bit of salinity, earth, pretty much all the good things. What an incredible bottle of wine!
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Like the others in this mini-series (1988/89/90), this has a remarkably deep colour and youthful appearance: still a deep dark red, bricking at the rim. Very aromatic from the off, initially leafy and autumnal, then some ripe cassis, tending towards blackcurrant pastilles, before a bit of VA and blood-iron aromas. Miraculously, that blew off and a sweet ethereal blackcurrant-violet thing took over. Nice. The palate is quite bright, still showing a bit of dusty tannin, nicely judged acidity to keep things lively, a long, lingering, intense finish, mingling fruit and meaty flavours. I think this is at the end of its secondary development, tipping into tertiary, but still a magnificent wine.
Unlike the 88/89/90, the label shows this as 80% rather than 70% Cab Sauv. And there is no indication of ABV
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Medium red with faint bricking on edge. After 45 minute decant, rich, a bit of funk, tobacco, deep black berry and fine but still somewhat present tannins. This still has a long life ahead. Elegant and thoroughly wonderful.
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Bu avec d'autres millésimes 1985 de Bordeaux, ce vin a eu besoin d'une aération énorme pour se réveler, je l'ai le plus apprécié 2 jours après. Bu après Mouton Baronne, Pontet Canet, Pavillon Rouge, Cos d'Estournel, Trotte Vieille, Daumas s'est révélé beaucoup plus puissant mais plus fermé pendant la soirée. Bu tout seul, il aurait certainement déçu, mais dans cette horizontale, on peut mesurer le niveau de ce vin par rapport à des grands vins. Cos d'Estournel, par exemple, qui a été le vin de la soirée, était superbe et parfait d'équilibre. Le problème de Daumas Gassac, c'est de savoir quand le boire et combien de temps l'ouvrir avant au risque de passer à côté. Je comprends les sceptiques sur ce vin qui ne l'ont pas bu dans de bonnes conditions, mais c'est assurément un grand vin. Ce vin était encore très (trop) jeune.
Another splendid example of the early vintages of this fabulous wine. Perfect level, well into the neck, decanted for about 90 minutes. Deep ruby colour, wonderful red fruit still coming through, on the palate silky, smooth, yet masculine and with a lot of body, great length and a long life still ahead.
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Private tasting of french wines The last one in the lineup and the star. A touch up from the last two bottles. What a luck I had with this case. Absolutely stunning. No signs of weakening. I think this vintage shows why at the beginning of Daumas Gassac there were comparisons with Lafite and Latour.
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Donkerrood, iets oranje aan de rand. Net na inschenken een stevige putlucht, maar dit vervliegt al snel. Provencaalse kruiden, leder, zoet zwart fruit. Lang aanhoudend, smeltende tannines, fraaie zuren. Indrukwekkend!
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This bottle was a great wine. The cork crumbled to pieces and made me expect nothing, but then came (no decant) the taste and smell of an overwhelmingly impressive piece of wine art. What a colour, not even the slightest brown rim after 27 years (and it is fresh) , what fantastic impressions and aftertaste. I think it came from perfect storage from a first time owner. I am speechless and hope I can get another bottle. Michael Broadbent was very optimistic about this Gassac vintage and with this bottle he was more than right. Thanks to Aime Guibert for this !!! I got it for an (given the quality) unbelievable 53 €, for a claret of this age and quality I think you can pay at least four times the money. Catch it if you can ! (I think in this condition it can be delicious till 2020)
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Very good level, into the neck. Wonderful ruby colur with just a hint of red brick. On the nose complex, fruit and leather, understated yet very harmonious. On the palate some sweetness, very very elegant like a good Margaux, silky, smooth and still very long in the mouth. Glad I still have a few bottles left as this will definetly last until the end of the decade.
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for an 85 i was pleasantly surprised with the mild earthy nose and still very good colour with just a tinge of brown quite amazing and still somme mid-level tannin with some mild red fruit
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Verticale du Mas de Daumas Gassac: Même nez oxydatif que le 1986, par contre la bouche chocolatée lui est vraiment supérieure. Magnifique par cette structure aérienne et par cette richesse bien équilibrée. J'ai le sentiment net que c'est une bouteille fatiguée, de ce qui serait autrement un grand vin. Peut-être un autre 1989? 90 pts malgré son défaut.
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Decanted for 1 hour then stqrted tqsting. Carmine red with slightest tinge of brick. On the nose at first smell of lovage, bit of licorice and some tar. On palate compact, full, good acid/tannin balance.Not overly complex, straight as an arrow, dignified. Bit like an old school Bordeaux. continued to develop in the glass and after 2 hours the lovage smell had almost disappeared and had developed more after taste. Has held up well. This wine is still quite a while from being old or in danger of falling apart. Will keep another 2-5 years at least. Interesting, pleasurable experience, confirming my newly formed theory that these wines need at least 15+ years of age to really shine in the glass.
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Black plummy and slightly raisiny fruit with a strong tarry topnote; feels hollow in the middle with the flavours and structure coming across a little disjointed.
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the cork crumbled to bits and i was worried, but this was the best bottle of the bunch. pungently earthy but with lovely secondary fruit and gentle acidity that kept it feeling fresh.
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Decanted. Nicest at the very beginning when the leathery dried fruit was somewhat expressive and the wine felt balanced, if not terribly exciting. Downhill from there with a murky character. Past it's prime.
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Soft, friendly and still has enough power. There are red fruits and quite much acidity. And for Mas de Daumas that is something different, because mostly black fruits dominate in this wine. The wine is certainly more than ok for a 23 years old, but I am not overly impressed.
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Chocolate in the bouquet as well as the taste. Not as impressive as I am used to from this domain. Lacks a bit in acidity, but is certainly not too old.
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Much more open than the '82 but still seems young for a 22 year old wine. Fruit and tannins are almost fully integrated and this has a great velvety mouthfeel. Very seductive wine. Nice.
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The color of a much younger wine. When first opened, I saw more Rhone-like qualities, and once it got an hour or two of air, more Bordeaux-like elements began to come to the forefront. Raspberry / cherry fruit and spice; lightly herbaceous. Aromas resolved by its age, though still not overly expressive. You get the feeling that this needs another 5+ years in the cellar.
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4/23/2024 - chngpw wrote: 90 Points
First bottle from a case of 6. Labels badly damaged but cork was in great condition, came out intact. No bricking at all, dark purple almost violet in the glass. Surprising colour given the age. Very shy nose and little fruit on the body but the tannins are powerful and rustic. The general flavour profile is reminiscent of sandalwood and Provençal herbs, rosemary, garrigue. Very long finish, splitting image of Ribena. Despite the age, this showed much better after some aeration with more blackberry coming to the fore.
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4/19/2021 - jonvayn wrote: 93 Points
Lovely matured cabernet.
At peak now.
I was afraid to decant too much this wine but this was an error. It improves strongly after 30min carafe as fruits waking up and everything getting in place.
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3/13/2021 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Dinner from Isfahan (Chicago, IL): Sadly this bottle wasn't as good as my last two experiences with this wine. The nose shows a very mild hint of pyrazine, as well as quite a bit of dried herbs. The palate is a little plummy and shows a fair bit of ripeness and alcohol, but I wouldn't say it's over the top either. I know what this wine can be, so it's definitely a little disappointing.
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3/29/2020 - Bandreas Likes this wine:
Very nice, good quality and long cork, better than the one from Vega sicilia yesterday...
Garnet color, the center shows as mature wine, there is some bricking at the rim.
Strong bouquet of lovage which dissipates a little as the wine is exposed to air.
The lovage also appears on the palate, but in fainter notes. Otherwise there is a strong tannic grip, and a touch of softer sweetness. The wine is quite intense and has a good finish but my feeling is that the tannins have eaten up most of the fruit and that the wine is well into its tertiary stage.
At this point I want to repeat my earlier recommendation is: drink up unless your wine is in larger format bottles.
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2/9/2020 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 94 Points
Mas de Daumas Gassac Tasting and Dinner (Restaurant De Lage Vuursche, Lage Vuursche, NL): After the tasting in the afternoon, revisited at dinner in the evening. Even with 32 people, a Mathusalem is an ample quantity of wine...
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2/9/2020 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 94 Points
Mas de Daumas Gassac Tasting and Dinner (Restaurant De Lage Vuursche, Lage Vuursche, NL): Mathusalem. An amazing wine, this has everything, freshness and fruit, firm but ripe tannins, cedary and meaty, cool and minerally but generous and elegant, incredibly youthful, still floral and evolving at a glacial pace in this grand format, excellent length. Stunning.
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4/27/2019 - acidqueen wrote: 94 Points
This needs a good decant. Starts out leather and orange peel, and then moves to dark cherry, blackberry, rose with a whiff of camphor. No apparent tannins. Rich, elegant and in a great place. Time to drink this one. Very good.
Happy 15th anniversary to CellarTracker and Eric! I don’t know what I would do without CT.
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6/15/2018 - Bandreas Likes this wine:
Garnet red, dark core and scarcely bricking at the rim..
On the nose: leather, cedar, a touch of violet and a whiff of Camphor. (My wife detected prunes stewed in cognac..)
On the palate an up-front sensation of tannin, which subsides and then reappears later; apart from that the wine is silky smooth and refined, yet packs a punch.
It has aged gracefully but will probably not further improve. There is a chance that the tannins will overpower everything in the next 5-8 years.
Drink up what you have left in the cellar.
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2/28/2018 - acyso wrote: 95 Points
Dinner at Sun Wah (Chicago, IL): This is just as I remembered it being. Old cabernet flavours, with a touch of green herbaceousness dominating the leather and earth. Crisp and clean though, with no funk, the fruit is dried and secondary, but certainly not dried out. The palate is a continuation of all of that on the nose, and the finish is silky, with good concentration and length. I suppose there's a reason that this was the first Languedoc wine I've ever bought (and I've been buying wine for a decade now).
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1/17/2018 - acyso wrote: 95 Points
Flickinger Tasting at The Casino (Chicago, IL): A beautiful nose of cedar, dried herbs, and some classic old cabernet flavours as well. The palate still has generous tannin, but this bottle shows beautiful secondary characteristics. A bit of dried figs and dates, a bit of salinity, earth, pretty much all the good things. What an incredible bottle of wine!
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8/3/2017 - wineamateur Likes this wine:
Like the others in this mini-series (1988/89/90), this has a remarkably deep colour and youthful appearance: still a deep dark red, bricking at the rim. Very aromatic from the off, initially leafy and autumnal, then some ripe cassis, tending towards blackcurrant pastilles, before a bit of VA and blood-iron aromas. Miraculously, that blew off and a sweet ethereal blackcurrant-violet thing took over. Nice. The palate is quite bright, still showing a bit of dusty tannin, nicely judged acidity to keep things lively, a long, lingering, intense finish, mingling fruit and meaty flavours. I think this is at the end of its secondary development, tipping into tertiary, but still a magnificent wine.
Unlike the 88/89/90, the label shows this as 80% rather than 70% Cab Sauv. And there is no indication of ABV
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1/24/2016 - acidqueen wrote: 95 Points
Medium red with faint bricking on edge. After 45 minute decant, rich, a bit of funk, tobacco, deep black berry and fine but still somewhat present tannins. This still has a long life ahead. Elegant and thoroughly wonderful.
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4/11/2015 - Boire du Bon Likes this wine: 95 Points
Bu avec d'autres millésimes 1985 de Bordeaux, ce vin a eu besoin d'une aération énorme pour se réveler, je l'ai le plus apprécié 2 jours après.
Bu après Mouton Baronne, Pontet Canet, Pavillon Rouge, Cos d'Estournel, Trotte Vieille, Daumas s'est révélé beaucoup plus puissant mais plus fermé pendant la soirée.
Bu tout seul, il aurait certainement déçu, mais dans cette horizontale, on peut mesurer le niveau de ce vin par rapport à des grands vins.
Cos d'Estournel, par exemple, qui a été le vin de la soirée, était superbe et parfait d'équilibre.
Le problème de Daumas Gassac, c'est de savoir quand le boire et combien de temps l'ouvrir avant au risque de passer à côté.
Je comprends les sceptiques sur ce vin qui ne l'ont pas bu dans de bonnes conditions, mais c'est assurément un grand vin.
Ce vin était encore très (trop) jeune.
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3/24/2014 - chevalblanc1959 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Another splendid example of the early vintages of this fabulous wine. Perfect level, well into the neck, decanted for about 90 minutes. Deep ruby colour, wonderful red fruit still coming through, on the palate silky, smooth, yet masculine and with a lot of body, great length and a long life still ahead.
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3/22/2014 - Eubulos Likes this wine: 96 Points
Private tasting of french wines The last one in the lineup and the star. A touch up from the last two bottles. What a luck I had with this case. Absolutely stunning. No signs of weakening. I think this vintage shows why at the beginning of Daumas Gassac there were comparisons with Lafite and Latour.
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9/1/2013 - Eubulos Likes this wine: 94 Points
Two more bottles from a recently obtained case. Not quite as perfect as the first bottle I had but still very very good.
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7/15/2013 - Strikermax wrote: 94 Points
Donkerrood, iets oranje aan de rand. Net na inschenken een stevige putlucht, maar dit vervliegt al snel. Provencaalse kruiden, leder, zoet zwart fruit. Lang aanhoudend, smeltende tannines, fraaie zuren. Indrukwekkend!
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8/9/2012 - Eubulos wrote: 100 Points
This bottle was a great wine. The cork crumbled to pieces and made me expect nothing, but then came (no decant) the taste and smell of an overwhelmingly impressive piece of wine art. What a colour, not even the slightest brown rim after 27 years (and it is fresh) , what fantastic impressions and aftertaste. I think it came from perfect storage from a first time owner. I am speechless and hope I can get another bottle. Michael Broadbent was very optimistic about this Gassac vintage and with this bottle he was more than right. Thanks to Aime Guibert for this !!! I got it for an (given the quality) unbelievable 53 €, for a claret of this age and quality I think you can pay at least four times the money. Catch it if you can !
(I think in this condition it can be delicious till 2020)
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6/5/2012 - chevalblanc1959 wrote: 92 Points
Very good level, into the neck. Wonderful ruby colur with just a hint of red brick. On the nose complex, fruit and leather, understated yet very harmonious. On the palate some sweetness, very very elegant like a good Margaux, silky, smooth and still very long in the mouth. Glad I still have a few bottles left as this will definetly last until the end of the decade.
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5/21/2012 - pointrob wrote: 88 Points
for an 85 i was pleasantly surprised with the mild earthy nose and still very good colour with just a tinge of brown
quite amazing and still somme mid-level tannin with some mild red fruit
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5/11/2012 - d'Artagnan wrote: 90 Points
Verticale du Mas de Daumas Gassac: Même nez oxydatif que le 1986, par contre la bouche chocolatée lui est vraiment supérieure. Magnifique par cette structure aérienne et par cette richesse bien équilibrée. J'ai le sentiment net que c'est une bouteille fatiguée, de ce qui serait autrement un grand vin. Peut-être un autre 1989?
90 pts malgré son défaut.
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12/13/2011 - Bandreas wrote: 90 Points
Decanted for 1 hour then stqrted tqsting.
Carmine red with slightest tinge of brick. On the nose at first smell of lovage, bit of licorice and some tar.
On palate compact, full, good acid/tannin balance.Not overly complex, straight as an arrow, dignified. Bit like an old school Bordeaux.
continued to develop in the glass and after 2 hours the lovage smell had almost disappeared and had developed more after taste.
Has held up well. This wine is still quite a while from being old or in danger of falling apart. Will keep another 2-5 years at least.
Interesting, pleasurable experience, confirming my newly formed theory that these wines need at least 15+ years of age to really shine in the glass.
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8/18/2011 - salil wrote: 83 Points
Black plummy and slightly raisiny fruit with a strong tarry topnote; feels hollow in the middle with the flavours and structure coming across a little disjointed.
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10/31/2010 - brooklynguy wrote:
the cork crumbled to bits and i was worried, but this was the best bottle of the bunch. pungently earthy but with lovely secondary fruit and gentle acidity that kept it feeling fresh.
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9/12/2010 - brooklynguy wrote:
Decanted. Nicest at the very beginning when the leathery dried fruit was somewhat expressive and the wine felt balanced, if not terribly exciting. Downhill from there with a murky character. Past it's prime.
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8/24/2010 - brooklynguy wrote:
pretty darn mature for a wine that's supposed to take forever to come around. a hint of raisin in there, lots of leather. inconclusive.
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1/6/2009 - Zweder wrote: 86 Points
Soft, friendly and still has enough power. There are red fruits and quite much acidity. And for Mas de Daumas that is something different, because mostly black fruits dominate in this wine. The wine is certainly more than ok for a 23 years old, but I am not overly impressed.
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11/21/2008 - Zweder wrote: 86 Points
Chocolate in the bouquet as well as the taste. Not as impressive as I am used to from this domain. Lacks a bit in acidity, but is certainly not too old.
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7/12/2007 - 60ouvrees wrote:
Much more open than the '82 but still seems young for a 22 year old wine. Fruit and tannins are almost fully integrated and this has a great velvety mouthfeel. Very seductive wine. Nice.
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3/27/2006 - Ben Andersen wrote:
The color of a much younger wine. When first opened, I saw more Rhone-like qualities, and once it got an hour or two of air, more Bordeaux-like elements began to come to the forefront. Raspberry / cherry fruit and spice; lightly herbaceous. Aromas resolved by its age, though still not overly expressive. You get the feeling that this needs another 5+ years in the cellar.
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10/3/2004 - Rupert wrote: 86 Points
Still dark, still tannic. Decent, but not generous enough.
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