1988 Château Rausan-Ségla

Community Tasting Notes (99) Avg Score: 90.7 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Juliansi's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/8/2024 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 90 Points

  I had been so excited to first purchase this, have a very kind buddy hand carry this back from abroad.. and then to cellar it since last year, before sharing it with another set of 1988 birthday lads and their missus!
  
  Happy Birthday to WK, and glad to share this with another 1988 baby AL too. Dinner over simple but delicious steaks at Butchers Carey.
  
  74% Cab, 26% Merlot.
  
  Light and developing green notes on the nose, light cedar hints.
  
  Even after 36 years, there was still blackfruit and plums on the palate!
  
  Still quite complex with layers of fruit intertwined with M+ acidity whilst most of the tannins have already been shed.
  
  However as the night progressed, I found the tannins to be slightly dusty on the finish.
  
  The finish was memorable, medium to long length, probably 30 seconds.
  
  Best of all, how this Rausan 1988 aged in such a slow and graceful way, seems to have only just moved into the tertiary phase with light polished saddle, it's still so lively after all these years.
  
  The roundtable of guesses, yes we always drink our wines.. wrapped up and blinded!
  
  AL and birthday boy WK, one guessed New World whilst the other.. Old World. Both thought perhaps mid or late 2000s, 2008?
  
  @Hann thought maybe New World, as late as 2012!
  
  The provenance of this bottle was so good, the cork so pristine with only 3mm wet. Love it!
  
  @Alex F thought Margaux, well guessed bro! The typicity of the nose gave this away.
  
  
  Butchers Carey Damas, KL, Malaysia
  8th Mar 2024

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View AudunG's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/13/2024 - AudunG wrote: 93 Points

  Lovely mature left bank aromas with leather, flowers, mushrooms, pencil and some greenness. Mature and quite refined on the palate.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Juliansi's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/30/2023 - Juliansi Likes this wine: 86 Points

  It's that time of the year ... Happy Bordecembre!!
  
  Youthful and hard to believe... this is a 35 year old wine! I brought along this second-growth wine from the Margaux appelation for our birthday boy ... as this is his birth-year.
  
  I had purchased this early this year from Winebuff Hong Kong, and hand carried it back to Malaysia. Grateful for the provenance and quality of this aged bottle!
  
  Back in the first 10 years of its life, Robert Parker had described this to be a wine for the long-term. RP called this a strong, powerful wine with an opaque ruby/purple color and a tight but promising bouquet of black currants and is very muscular, very masculine, and brawny wine. He even asked, "Will it ever shed all of its tannin?"
  
  Only bottle breathed for about 15 minutes, I used a Vinaera wine pourer with filter instead as I was worried to overly decant such an aged wine. It was the right decision, as the nose was one of black fruit, raspberries and hints of cigar ash and soil too. The palate was one of green peppers, beautiful polished leather and I thought it had remained quite fresh.
  
  Blend of 74% Cab and 26% Merlot. This is a complex and wine that punches above the "average vintage" of rainy 1988, and I loved the tobacco-tinged long finish of over 40 seconds length. Medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and I loved that some of the core of fruit is still there.
  
  Interestingly for its age, there is still some firm tannins, as well as medium+ acidity which lifts the wine.
  
  Joe thought Italian, and so did Romz and LF. Hmm, God of Wines Mika was the only one who thought... is this a Bordeaux? But he didn't seem very convinced too! What all the lads did agree on was that my wine seemed to be younger compared to Joe's... Funny look on their faces when they saw that it was of the same 1988 vintage when unveiled!
  
  Happy Birthday brother LF, hope you enjoyed our birth-year wines for you.. Not just this one, but the Las Cases (Romz) and Gruaud Larose (JY) too!
  
  
  Vintage 1988:
  
  October 1987 - Rains which shaped the vintage, and continued in a sporadic fashion for many months. Above-average rainfall right through to June 1988.
  
  There was a need to get out into the vineyard and spray, to protect the vines from rot and mildew, very early on in this vintage.
  
  The flowering was later than usual and rather uneven, increasing the risk of uneven ripeness in the fruit come harvest time.
  
  In the summer months, from June 1988 onwards, hopes started to be raised for a good vintage.
  
  July, August and September were drier then usual, although not particularly warm. From October 1988, temperatures finally took off, with a true Indian summer, encouraging the ripening of the fruit.
  
  The best fruit was ripe with thick skin, thus giving the best wines plenty of colour and tannin.
  
  Uneven flowering and there was significant variation between varieties, vineyards, and even between vines and bunches, of the maturity of the fruit. Thus a year of irregular quality!
  
  
  Critic reviews:
  
  Critics were critical of this vintage, with ratings such as RP 91 and WS 90 - But I have learnt that especially for significantly aged Bordeauxs (Pre-2000s in my books!), they can sometimes and often be wrong.
  
  Back in the early 1990s, Robert Parker had enthusiastically described this 1988 Château Rauzan-Ségla as the second great vintage produced here during the estate’s renaissance, with the 1986 the first superb wine here in a generation to his mind.
  
  The most interesting comment.. Did this Rausan vintage truly show-off a typical Margaux character? Some described this to drink more like a St. Julien!
  
  
  30th Nov 2023
  Maillard Grill KL, Malaysia

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Seth Rosenberg's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/28/2023 - Seth Rosenberg Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Tasted double blind from a small capped bottle as part of a zoom tasting. Nose has lots of pyrazines - green pepper and tobacco, minerality, charcoal? Not a lot of fruit. Maybe some red/blue? - black cherry and blackbery. Spicy and maybe a bit volatile? Hints of carob and nutty - some age but not too much. The palate has similar pyrazines - more tobacco than green pepper. Very spicy and assertive - high acid and some green. Not a lot of tannin. Rich. Maybe some char. A little tart/sour. Nose - 5-5.5/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 4.5-5/6, Je ne Sais Quoi - 1-1.5/2 = 15.5-17/20.
  
  I figured BDX on these (and the 95 Haut Bailly). Saw some scorch in each and thought they were both Graves. Guessed they were two vintages of the same wine with the other being older. Guess this to be 1995 Domaine de Chevalier (and the 95 Haut Bailly to be the 1983 Domaine de Chevalier.)

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View lozatron's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/4/2023 - lozatron Likes this wine:

  Family do with Barbecue, Pizza and Salads (Leafy West London): Served from magnum, two bottles tasted but both very similar. Earthy, a certain campfire note - this was definitely a cut above your regular barbecue wine but even in magnum this is most definitely ready to drink. Sub 13% wine is just so good for lunchtime quaffing.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

View all 99 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.