1981 Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvée Spéciale La Tourtine

Community Tasting Notes (4) Median Score: 90 points

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  1/29/2023 - SWLS wrote:

  What Ledocq said!
  Beautiful, soft, perfumery cigar box nose. Savory on the palate with extremely soft tannins, terrific length and finesse. Maybe we got lucky with this bottle but showing remarkably for its age.

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  9/26/2015 - ledocq Likes this wine: 98 Points

  Yeah, seriously.
  
  Low fill, like mid-shoulder. Corroded capsule. A cork that was actually damp to the touch on the top. Thought it was dead, and so I left it, cork a pile of soggy dust, having collapsed into the bottle, for an hour. Then I thought what the hell. I put a glass of it through a coffee strainer. The initial taste was profoundly weird. My girlfriend was baffled by it -- smelled like something from her childhood. The taste was like someone had written "Mouvedre" on a jigsaw puzzle, then thrown the pieces into a glass haphazardly.
  
  Then it resolved. And seriously, seriously, 98 points. I have never tasted anything like this before, and I've had Cabassaou from the 1990s. Every sip was complex and deep and confusing and enthralling. ("Wait, now it's plum and pomegranate, with some mintiness. No, now it's --") My girlfriend summarized it -- in comparison to the excellent 1989 Monte Bello we also had that night, this was like a 34 year old woman who drives an old Fiat, who can fix it herself, and who has been invited to dinner because she knows how to tell good stories because she's seen some things.
  
  We didn't want the bottle to ever end. This was a transcendent experience.

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  4/19/1991 - MicklethePickle Likes this wine: 87 Points

  With Michael Lehmann at a Singer & Foy survey of Domain Tempier. Developed ruby color. Fruity cherry scents. Some coffee, too. Good flavor and body. Long finish. Good; very good. 4–10–16–7: 87/100.

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  5/1/1990 - MicklethePickle Likes this wine: 90 Points

  With Michael Lehmann at Singer & Foy, circa 5/90. Light to medium ruby. Good roast coffee in the nose. In the mouth, very nice, with fruit and complexity. Very fine. Long finish, like chocolate covered coffee beans. 5-11-17-7: 90/100.

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