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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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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