Bordecembre, no. 42. The penultimate Bordeaux in my crazy December!
Musky nose, most if not all the fruit is gone. Luckily, the whiff cleared after about 15 minutes. Acidity M-, tannins are completely resolved.
Brownish, luckily still clear and not cloudy. Clear rim was perhaps 4mm wide. Is this a Bordeaux, Left Bank.. Perhaps mid-1980s? BINGO!
Sois-bois, mushroom and wet soil notes. Perhaps about 3-5 years past its zenith, all secondary and tertiaries now.
Medium length finish, light tobacco and mainly leathery. Still fun to try, but drink up!
With this being a near 40 year vintage, I could not determine the precise blend. I can only assume it is somewhat similar to 62% Cab, 32% Merlot, 4% Cab Franc and 2% Petit Verdot which is how the vines in the estate have been planted.
Alfred Tesseron only took over (From his father, Guy) running the estate in 1994. By 2010, the estate had gone fully biodynamic. Our dear host and provider of this bottle, RN, reminded that this was from a time over 2 wine-makers previous to the current one when Pontet-Canet was a different world.
Jean-Michel Comme, started with Pontet Canet in 1989, introducing the non-interventionist flame, so this 1985 vintage is certainly from the yesteryear as reminded by brother RN.
Vintage: 1985 vintage for Bordeaux is described as an absolute stand-out, a vintage of the decade.
Winter frosts kicked off the year before the arrival of a cold, wet spring that saw some storms.
Hot weather followed in time for flowering. July remained hot and saw some rainfall while August, although cooler, saw very little rain.
September was both hot and record-breakingly dry, ideal for ripening. The harvest began late September continuing through to October. Reds were both elegant and exquisitely balanced.
Critics: Robert Parker - His first book he ever wrote was his guide to the wines of Bordeaux from 1985.
Parker was not unimpressed by Pontet-Canet, but still had it on a level below other Fifths such as Lynch-Bages and Grand-Puy-Lacoste and could not bring himself to recommend elevating it past Fifth. In fact, his scores for Pontet-Canet, besides for the legendary 1961, never went above 86. Even another iconic year, 1982, only managed 85.
Pontet-Canet is a Fifth Growth in the 1855 Classification, but for the last 15 years, Pontet-Canet has been considered the equivalent of a top Second Growth.
Some may say Pontet-Canet is the "first of the Fifth Growths" but mind you, is it better perhaps then the wonderful Lynch-Bages?
Pre NY Eve at Grand Imperial, Happy New 2024 lads!
Grand Imperial, Hartamas in KL, Malaysia 30th Dec 2023
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debouchee 24h avant carafee 5h avant belle robe bordeaux, nez complexe avec arome de truffe, bouquet moins complexe que le nez mais belle longueur pour son age
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Ullage in neck. Cork 2/3 wet, falling apart at base. Poured into a narrow decanter. Fine sediment. Nose of dark fruits, touch of menthol, and earth. Flavors of red/dark fruits, a touch of sourness/tart, hint of cigar ash, integrated tannins, earth, and constantly evolving. Began to show some age after 30 minutes, but still lots of acidity. Moderate+ complexity/Long finish. Past or at its peak.
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First offline of 2018 & a birthday celebration (Amali, NYC): Decanted for about two hours, definitely very mature and probably time to drink up, but still very enjoyable. Drank side by side with the '96 Pontet-Canet - it was clear that this was all tertiary flavors now - not much fruit left, but those flavors were really interesting. Reminded me of old library smells, well oiled leather, pencils, tobacco. Someone thought of the scratch & sniff version of the board game Clue - where you could smell the library. I really enjoyed this and actually preferred to the '96 which was way more primary. Thanks to M&L for sharing.
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Tannin has all gone and fruit is going. Relatively strong tertiary flavour (as compared to its fruit) and oaky. Leather and earthy. The finish is moderate but acidity is a bit lacking making the wine too heavy.
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°°° Bordeaux 1985 °°° (Emmen, Switzerland): Deep red. Nose shows tar, roasted coffee and dark fruit. Plenty of power. Nice sweetness. This is a quite easy drinking wine. The only negative are the somewhat dry tannins, but this bottle definitely was a pleasant surprise as old Pontet Cantets are often difficult. Drink now
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Dark garnet with brownish tinge showing maturity. Beautiful bouquet of tobacco, earth, cigar box, dried herbs and blackcurrant. Still robust after 30 years, showing black fruits, blackcurrant, cigar box on palate. Good solid mid-palate, nice long finish with hints of spice and fine chewy tannins. This bottle is holding very well.
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Drank this at a wine mate's baby shower last night.
Red in colour (showing its age) but the structure and body is still holding up well. Nice nose with notes of blackberries, flowers and oak.
On the palate the wine reminds me of redwood, blackcurrant and chocolate.
This bottle has proven the ability of the wine (and wines from the appellation) to age, gaining a lot of charm and character along the way. Can drink now or keep for the next few years.
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Casual Wines Session on Wednesday night (Extra Space, Boon Keng): Dark garnet with brick red hues, it has dark fruits, mineral, blackberry and floral notes on the nose. Soft and smooth entry, showing blackcurrant, tobacco and hints of floral. Good acidity with chewy tannins and long finish. Holding very well and clearly the better wine for tonight. Can still keep for another few more years.
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Quickly opened up when the bottle was opened without aeration. Rusty Claret(old brick) in color, yet light around the edges, with an classic style creation, delivers old world Bordeaux palate with that wonderful wet leather delivery, with subtle hints of white pepper.
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Rusty garnet core to brick on the rim; aromas of (with a few minutes of airing) dried berries, cranberry, wet clat and sand, some gravel, dried spices and horse leather; in the mouth, it still shows some ripe tannins, good acidity and grip, medium body, lots of dried fruit and spice character, bitter tea and an echo of cigar smoke. Still alive and kicking. Would be awesome with a rack of lamb.
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Old, smells like a chai in Bordeaux. Not bad though - the fruit that is left (not much) has a little sweetness to it, maybe a little tobacco. Medium-length finish during which you can tell that at one time this wine had some complexity to it, though now you have merely hints at past pleasures. Starting to think there are only a few wines left from the '85 Bordeaux vintage that are not in decline. Sadly, this isn't one of them.
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Fully mature, perhaps in decline. Wonderful aromatics, very little fruit left, a pleasant wine, much more left on the nose than on the palate, finish was a bit short. Not overly complex but thoroughly enjoyable. Matched well with Squab.
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Roasted quail stuffed with rice and garnished with foie gras or Entrecote with sauce Bordelaise
I really enjoyed this vintage in the early and mid-90s but, strangely enough, have had fewer examples recently. The wines drank well when they were relatively young, but seemed to have enough stuff to hang on for a while as well. This vintage also seemed to be priced pretty well, as it got lost a bit in the run of the ‘80s. Though they are at different ends of the spectrum, I've probably drunk and enjoyed more ‘85s and ‘88s than anything else from that decade. I certainly think those two have presented the best QPR over time.
I recently drank an '89 Pontet Canet that stunned me and had seen some older good notes on the '85 (though the reviews on the '85 PC have not been universally good).
I double decanted these at the same time as the Bouree bottles. While these didn't have the exploding funk of the burg, they were – all in all – showing more fruit and gave me more confidence they would work at dinner. More evolution in color, but still solid and reasonably deep. No longer opaque, but not something I could hold up to a soft light to figure out how much sediment I was dealing with before opening. Nose was restrained but classic Pauillac. Cedary, tiny bit of vanilla, clean sharp dark berry. Palate was very slightly chewy with tannin, but tannin was more underneath the same fruit that showed on the nose. At that point, little complexity, but enough structure and fruit to make me comfortable.
When served with the quail, it underwhelmed me. I wasn't sure whether it had closed up or fallen apart. In retrospect, I think two things happened. First, the fat in the foie garnish may have been a bit much. Second, I do think it went dumb for a while. It was the same wine, same Pauillac aromas, but basically little to no fruit on the nose or palate. Perfectly pleasant drinking (and more pleasing to those who had the entrecote), but a bit of a disappointment.
(Next morning, a quick sip from an unfinished bottle had opened up nicely and had fruit once again. Next evening, the last bit with a piece of well-aged Comte was really enjoyable, but fading again. I've got three more of these and would love thoughts from anyone with recent experience. My best guess is that I'll pop one soon with a little plain roast chicken, see how it does over six to eight hours and make a decision on the other two then. I don't have the feeling there's any evolution left, but I'm baffled as to why these went dumb for hours.)
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12/30/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 88 Points
Bordecembre, no. 42. The penultimate Bordeaux in my crazy December!
Musky nose, most if not all the fruit is gone. Luckily, the whiff cleared after about 15 minutes. Acidity M-, tannins are completely resolved.
Brownish, luckily still clear and not cloudy. Clear rim was perhaps 4mm wide. Is this a Bordeaux, Left Bank.. Perhaps mid-1980s? BINGO!
Sois-bois, mushroom and wet soil notes. Perhaps about 3-5 years past its zenith, all secondary and tertiaries now.
Medium length finish, light tobacco and mainly leathery. Still fun to try, but drink up!
With this being a near 40 year vintage, I could not determine the precise blend. I can only assume it is somewhat similar to 62% Cab, 32% Merlot, 4% Cab Franc and 2% Petit Verdot which is how the vines in the estate have been planted.
Alfred Tesseron only took over (From his father, Guy) running the estate in 1994. By 2010, the estate had gone fully biodynamic. Our dear host and provider of this bottle, RN, reminded that this was from a time over 2 wine-makers previous to the current one when Pontet-Canet was a different world.
Jean-Michel Comme, started with Pontet Canet in 1989, introducing the non-interventionist flame, so this 1985 vintage is certainly from the yesteryear as reminded by brother RN.
Vintage:
1985 vintage for Bordeaux is described as an absolute stand-out, a vintage of the decade.
Winter frosts kicked off the year before the arrival of a cold, wet spring that saw some storms.
Hot weather followed in time for flowering. July remained hot and saw some rainfall while August, although cooler, saw very little rain.
September was both hot and record-breakingly dry, ideal for ripening. The harvest began late September continuing through to October. Reds were both elegant and exquisitely balanced.
Critics:
Robert Parker - His first book he ever wrote was his guide to the wines of Bordeaux from 1985.
Parker was not unimpressed by Pontet-Canet, but still had it on a level below other Fifths such as Lynch-Bages and Grand-Puy-Lacoste and could not bring himself to recommend elevating it past Fifth.
In fact, his scores for Pontet-Canet, besides for the legendary 1961, never went above 86. Even another iconic year, 1982, only managed 85.
Pontet-Canet is a Fifth Growth in the 1855 Classification, but for the last 15 years, Pontet-Canet has been considered the equivalent of a top Second Growth.
Some may say Pontet-Canet is the "first of the Fifth Growths" but mind you, is it better perhaps then the wonderful Lynch-Bages?
Pre NY Eve at Grand Imperial, Happy New 2024 lads!
Grand Imperial, Hartamas in KL, Malaysia
30th Dec 2023
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10/22/2021 - stjl Likes this wine: 90 Points
debouchee 24h avant carafee 5h avant belle robe bordeaux, nez complexe avec arome de truffe, bouquet moins complexe que le nez mais belle longueur pour son age
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5/1/2020 - glucker wrote: 90 Points
- Ruby color - Surprisingly drinking well.Cork was intact .Didnt need screwpull. Great with food.
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11/26/2019 - Remedy wrote:
Drank with my 2 bosses and bedrock bar and grill.
Still drinking well but towards the end of life.
Secondary flavours.
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3/22/2019 - Bathtub58 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Ullage in neck. Cork 2/3 wet, falling apart at base. Poured into a narrow decanter. Fine sediment. Nose of dark fruits, touch of menthol, and earth. Flavors of red/dark fruits, a touch of sourness/tart, hint of cigar ash, integrated tannins, earth, and constantly evolving. Began to show some age after 30 minutes, but still lots of acidity. Moderate+ complexity/Long finish. Past or at its peak.
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3/22/2018 - ChjonesVino wrote: flawed
Old earthy, leather smell with a little fruit - Taste no more body, oak, and tobacco trying to hang on with a little dirt, turning sour or sour
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1/14/2018 - retired_and_roving Likes this wine: 91 Points
First offline of 2018 & a birthday celebration (Amali, NYC): Decanted for about two hours, definitely very mature and probably time to drink up, but still very enjoyable. Drank side by side with the '96 Pontet-Canet - it was clear that this was all tertiary flavors now - not much fruit left, but those flavors were really interesting. Reminded me of old library smells, well oiled leather, pencils, tobacco. Someone thought of the scratch & sniff version of the board game Clue - where you could smell the library. I really enjoyed this and actually preferred to the '96 which was way more primary. Thanks to M&L for sharing.
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8/14/2015 - ETT95 wrote: 90 Points
Tannin has all gone and fruit is going. Relatively strong tertiary flavour (as compared to its fruit) and oaky. Leather and earthy. The finish is moderate but acidity is a bit lacking making the wine too heavy.
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8/1/2015 - Wine_lvr Likes this wine: 93 Points
°°° Bordeaux 1985 °°° (Emmen, Switzerland): Deep red. Nose shows tar, roasted coffee and dark fruit. Plenty of power. Nice sweetness. This is a quite easy drinking wine. The only negative are the somewhat dry tannins, but this bottle definitely was a pleasant surprise as old Pontet Cantets are often difficult. Drink now
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4/11/2015 - hkm520240 wrote: 93 Points
Dark garnet with brownish tinge showing maturity. Beautiful bouquet of tobacco, earth, cigar box, dried herbs and blackcurrant.
Still robust after 30 years, showing black fruits, blackcurrant, cigar box on palate. Good solid mid-palate, nice long finish with hints of spice and fine chewy tannins.
This bottle is holding very well.
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4/11/2015 - stayhappy21 wrote: 92 Points
Drank this at a wine mate's baby shower last night.
Red in colour (showing its age) but the structure and body is still holding up well. Nice nose with notes of blackberries, flowers and oak.
On the palate the wine reminds me of redwood, blackcurrant and chocolate.
This bottle has proven the ability of the wine (and wines from the appellation) to age, gaining a lot of charm and character along the way. Can drink now or keep for the next few years.
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4/10/2013 - hkm520240 wrote: 92 Points
Casual Wines Session on Wednesday night (Extra Space, Boon Keng): Dark garnet with brick red hues, it has dark fruits, mineral, blackberry and floral notes on the nose. Soft and smooth entry, showing blackcurrant, tobacco and hints of floral. Good acidity with chewy tannins and long finish.
Holding very well and clearly the better wine for tonight. Can still keep for another few more years.
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3/10/2013 - haBu wrote: 90 Points
Quickly opened up when the bottle was opened without aeration. Rusty Claret(old brick) in color, yet light around the edges, with an classic style creation, delivers old world Bordeaux palate with that wonderful wet leather delivery, with subtle hints of white pepper.
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3/8/2013 - beaunehead wrote: 88 Points
Rusty garnet core to brick on the rim; aromas of (with a few minutes of airing) dried berries, cranberry, wet clat and sand, some gravel, dried spices and horse leather; in the mouth, it still shows some ripe tannins, good acidity and grip, medium body, lots of dried fruit and spice character, bitter tea and an echo of cigar smoke. Still alive and kicking. Would be awesome with a rack of lamb.
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11/8/2009 - TheBusiness724 wrote: 89 Points
Old, smells like a chai in Bordeaux. Not bad though - the fruit that is left (not much) has a little sweetness to it, maybe a little tobacco. Medium-length finish during which you can tell that at one time this wine had some complexity to it, though now you have merely hints at past pleasures. Starting to think there are only a few wines left from the '85 Bordeaux vintage that are not in decline. Sadly, this isn't one of them.
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2/14/2009 - NVWINE79 wrote: 88 Points
Fully mature, perhaps in decline. Wonderful aromatics, very little fruit left, a pleasant wine, much more left on the nose than on the palate, finish was a bit short. Not overly complex but thoroughly enjoyable. Matched well with Squab.
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11/6/2004 - jrufusj wrote:
40th Birthday Dinner (Au Petit Paris (Tokyo)): This one was also mine and was served with a choice of two dishes:
Roasted quail stuffed with rice and garnished with foie gras
or
Entrecote with sauce Bordelaise
I really enjoyed this vintage in the early and mid-90s but, strangely enough, have had fewer examples recently. The wines drank well when they were relatively young, but seemed to have enough stuff to hang on for a while as well. This vintage also seemed to be priced pretty well, as it got lost a bit in the run of the ‘80s. Though they are at different ends of the spectrum, I've probably drunk and enjoyed more ‘85s and ‘88s than anything else from that decade. I certainly think those two have presented the best QPR over time.
I recently drank an '89 Pontet Canet that stunned me and had seen some older good notes on the '85 (though the reviews on the '85 PC have not been universally good).
I double decanted these at the same time as the Bouree bottles. While these didn't have the exploding funk of the burg, they were – all in all – showing more fruit and gave me more confidence they would work at dinner. More evolution in color, but still solid and reasonably deep. No longer opaque, but not something I could hold up to a soft light to figure out how much sediment I was dealing with before opening. Nose was restrained but classic Pauillac. Cedary, tiny bit of vanilla, clean sharp dark berry. Palate was very slightly chewy with tannin, but tannin was more underneath the same fruit that showed on the nose. At that point, little complexity, but enough structure and fruit to make me comfortable.
When served with the quail, it underwhelmed me. I wasn't sure whether it had closed up or fallen apart. In retrospect, I think two things happened. First, the fat in the foie garnish may have been a bit much. Second, I do think it went dumb for a while. It was the same wine, same Pauillac aromas, but basically little to no fruit on the nose or palate. Perfectly pleasant drinking (and more pleasing to those who had the entrecote), but a bit of a disappointment.
(Next morning, a quick sip from an unfinished bottle had opened up nicely and had fruit once again. Next evening, the last bit with a piece of well-aged Comte was really enjoyable, but fading again. I've got three more of these and would love thoughts from anyone with recent experience. My best guess is that I'll pop one soon with a little plain roast chicken, see how it does over six to eight hours and make a decision on the other two then. I don't have the feeling there's any evolution left, but I'm baffled as to why these went dumb for hours.)
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3/15/2001 - chbeaumont wrote:
Still enjoyable, needs to be drunk up, Mouton puts in its place. 14?
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