Another excellent showing for mature Laville Haut Brion, expanding continually over 90 minutes, constantly improving. Given enough air, this shows a rich nose, packed with grilled pineapple, lemon, lanolin, green tea, and a savory, almost miatake-like note. Fullish, succulent palate, the fresh lemon drawing a stark contrast to the nutty, sous-bois elements in the wine.
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Casual Dinner at Nico Osteria (Nico Osteria - Chicago, IL): Wow, what a wine. So much power, intensity and complexity. I rarely find that combination in 50+ year old white wine. Awesome notes of candied marmalade intermixed with herbs, spice and mature orchard fruit. Expansive palate with well-preserved freshness. Too cool.
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Dinner at Nico Osteria (Chicago, IL): This wine doesn't explode until it contacts air, and then it just goes crazy. Clearly there are still some potent sauvignon blanc notes, but this is spicy, honeyed, and slightly resiny. There's a waxy quality here as well, but there's acidity and spice to keep this from getting heavy. Light on its feet, with lots of complexity on the palate. Overall, I like the intoxicating nose more here, but that's picking nits with an incredible aged example of white Bordeaux.
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Semi blind v 1969 LHBB and 1989 HBB... and other exceptional wines. This was WOTN for me. Disalarmingly light colour, like a young sauv. blanc. Complex nose of pink and citrus fruits, not cat pee. Tight and penetrating, linear in the front of the mouth with an unbelievably explosive, lateral back of the mouth. Never felt anything like this before. Frankly not sure why I'm not awarding this an even higher rating. My unanswered question is at what level of a Burgundy chardonnay would need to be paired to win against this bottle.
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Level was just under top shoulder. Pristine colour, with no sign of aging. Nose was muted to begin with and actually this could have done with being decanted. Started to open up though and the minerality began to come through. Quite different to the Domaine de Chevalier, with much more power and more Burgundian in style. I imagine any bottle into the neck will keep for a while yet. Really grew on me and actually the last glass tonight 24 hours later was full of complexity and just starting to oxidize
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Private Chef dinner at Yann's new place (Flatiron District, Manhattan, New York): Tropical aromas, coconut, rubber. Matt says orange blossom. Bread. Salty on the palate. Bitter with caramel, and flowers. Creamy on the finish. Quite nice actually. A touch boney and dry, but pretty. This was very variable - sometimes it showed really old and somewhat off. But I had a few sips after it was open in the glass for a while that were pretty damn spectacular. Those sips showed a wine that was much more full and focused, lively with hazelnuts and minerals. Nose - 4.5/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 5/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi - 1/2 = 15.5/20. (Those better sips were 5-5.5-5-1.5 = 17/20.) So this puts the wine in the 91-94 range.
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11/19/2022 - aquacongas wrote: flawed
Not a perfect bottle
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3/14/2021 - englishman's claret wrote: 94 Points
Another excellent showing for mature Laville Haut Brion, expanding continually over 90 minutes, constantly improving. Given enough air, this shows a rich nose, packed with grilled pineapple, lemon, lanolin, green tea, and a savory, almost miatake-like note. Fullish, succulent palate, the fresh lemon drawing a stark contrast to the nutty, sous-bois elements in the wine.
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7/23/2019 - Nanda wrote: 95 Points
Casual Dinner at Nico Osteria (Nico Osteria - Chicago, IL): Wow, what a wine. So much power, intensity and complexity. I rarely find that combination in 50+ year old white wine. Awesome notes of candied marmalade intermixed with herbs, spice and mature orchard fruit. Expansive palate with well-preserved freshness. Too cool.
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7/23/2019 - acyso wrote: 95 Points
Dinner at Nico Osteria (Chicago, IL): This wine doesn't explode until it contacts air, and then it just goes crazy. Clearly there are still some potent sauvignon blanc notes, but this is spicy, honeyed, and slightly resiny. There's a waxy quality here as well, but there's acidity and spice to keep this from getting heavy. Light on its feet, with lots of complexity on the palate. Overall, I like the intoxicating nose more here, but that's picking nits with an incredible aged example of white Bordeaux.
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3/30/2017 - Dubie wrote: 98 Points
Semi blind v 1969 LHBB and 1989 HBB... and other exceptional wines. This was WOTN for me. Disalarmingly light colour, like a young sauv. blanc. Complex nose of pink and citrus fruits, not cat pee. Tight and penetrating, linear in the front of the mouth with an unbelievably explosive, lateral back of the mouth. Never felt anything like this before. Frankly not sure why I'm not awarding this an even higher rating. My unanswered question is at what level of a Burgundy chardonnay would need to be paired to win against this bottle.
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6/30/2014 - mychurch wrote: 92 Points
Level was just under top shoulder. Pristine colour, with no sign of aging. Nose was muted to begin with and actually this could have done with being decanted. Started to open up though and the minerality began to come through. Quite different to the Domaine de Chevalier, with much more power and more Burgundian in style. I imagine any bottle into the neck will keep for a while yet. Really grew on me and actually the last glass tonight 24 hours later was full of complexity and just starting to oxidize
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10/26/2012 - Seth Rosenberg wrote: 94 Points
Private Chef dinner at Yann's new place (Flatiron District, Manhattan, New York): Tropical aromas, coconut, rubber. Matt says orange blossom. Bread. Salty on the palate. Bitter with caramel, and flowers. Creamy on the finish. Quite nice actually. A touch boney and dry, but pretty. This was very variable - sometimes it showed really old and somewhat off. But I had a few sips after it was open in the glass for a while that were pretty damn spectacular. Those sips showed a wine that was much more full and focused, lively with hazelnuts and minerals. Nose - 4.5/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 5/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi - 1/2 = 15.5/20. (Those better sips were 5-5.5-5-1.5 = 17/20.) So this puts the wine in the 91-94 range.
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