1986 Bordeaux @ EWS
Tasted Monday, April 11, 2011 by KenK with 2,185 views
Introduction
1986 Bordeaux
Monday, April 11 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Cost: $530
25th Anniversary Retrospective
“The year 1986 is without doubt a great vintage for the northern Médoc, particularly for St. Julien and Pauillac, where many chateaux produced wines that are their deepest
and most concentrated since 1982, with 20 – 30 plus years of longevity.” Robert M. Parker, Jr., Bordeaux, 4th Edition
The thrill of tasting 25-year-old Bordeaux from a great vintage is unlike anything you could experience from a younger vintage. There is more complexity, nuance, and a
deep sense that the wine has come together. Also, in terms of length and dancing on the palate, mature Bordeaux offers far more than newer vintages.
EWS has tasted 1986 Bordeaux several times, including a memorable 10th anniversary retrospective blind tasting in 1996 with Robert Parker. At that time, we concluded that
the best wines still needed a lot more time to evolve. Now, as the wines have reached 25 years of age, it seems like a perfect time to re-evaluate the stars of the vintage.
For this special tasting, EWS has gathered 12 Bordeaux “wine of the vintage” candidates from 1986 for your tasting pleasure and intellectual scrutiny. Serious
Bordeaux lovers will not want to miss this tasting!
My personal takeaways
Hosted by Howard Kaplan and his partner, two old time NY wine peddlers who put on these special Executive Wine Seminars (EWS) tastings throughout the year from the
relatively sparse and moderately lit back room of a small wine store in Tribecca, a solid 40 min cab ride from Midtown in traffic (should have taken a the subway, I guess). The
hosts were nice enough fellows as I was allowed entry on a cancellation from the prior week. I arrived promptly at 6:30pm as instructed, but had apparently missed out on the
welcome wine, a Champagne, which I did not recognize. When asked for a taste I was acknowledged, but could see a new bottle would not be opened as they were rushing
around prepping for the main event and apparently only one bottle was going to be allocated. I counted about 40 people in the room seated at round white tables of six. This
surprised me on two counts, first amazing they could find 40 to shell out $500+ each for a sampling of 12 wines which would be a difficult in Chicago and second, just two
bottles of older wine would require very deft allocation of quite limited pours. Let's do some quick math 40 x $500 = $20,000. Perhaps three bottles for 40 would have been
more reasonable for the tariff and have created a better overall experience. Each table was offered a basket of pre-sliced french bread and a few nice cheese wedges.
Glassware was usable, but far from impressive for such esteemed wines and the entry fee. Each person was given four stems to be reused for each flight, which was fine by
me.
I was told by Howard that the bottles had been obtained from great cellars over the past six months or so and got the impression some were purchased via internet sites. Except
for the first flight, which appeared to have been decanted through brown coffee filters (not my preference), the wines were popped, quickly decanted in most cases and
poured. Serving sizes, to my surprise turned out to be acceptable for at least a few good tastes, but then again nothing could be revisited after an initial assessment. I
must admit, I was expecting a bit more in circuses, food, and drink considering the esteemed reputation of EWS and the cost.
On to the wines...
Not pretty wines for the most part, but they were quite good. The vintage comes across to me as masculine with lots of bold brawny character. Density of fruit was impressive
for the age, but chewy dark flavors dominated making most seem chunky and somewhat rustic. The better wines showed impressive balance and a more yummy
upfront fruit quality. These wines overall still have stuffing for the most part, so see most of these still having a very long life ahead, however, I doubt they will ever become pretty
drinkers.
Flight 1 - Pomerol, Pauillac, Margaux, and St. Estephe (4 Notes)
All have good color, showing some signs of age, opaque dirty reddish hues with flavors pointing towards a highly drinkable, dry earthy quality, seemingly brawny with resolved
tannins, but not over the hill. Enjoyable, but not a fat round wines.
Flight 2 - Wines of St. Julien (4 Notes)
I typically think of St Julien wines as polished rocky wines sleek in nature. However, these wines I found to be more individualized with the exception of the first two.
Flight 3 - The First Growths of 1986 (X-Latour) (4 Notes)
In this flight, the wines showed in a seemingly textbook way, the reputed style of each house came through in spades.
Closing
In hindsight, this was a great event in that it allowed me to get at a real sense of the vintage The wines, especially Lafite, have seen the value skyrocket with Lafite at $5,000+ in current auctions. When will I ever be able to do this again?
1986 Vieux Château Certan 91 Points
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
1986 Vieux Chateau Certan (Pomerol) (92WA, 93WS)
Lightest nose of the flight. Sweet perfume with nice ripeness of dried sour black cherries
with a neat baking spice quality. While some aromas of age were apparent, left a quite
ripe impression for a 25 yrs old. Has a rusty nail component. Palate: Dry and a tad
lean, good chewy lighter character, middle fruit falls out a bit, but nice nuanced finish.
Some upfront acid die out a bit in mouth. Enjoyable and on lighter side. not likely to
improve, in fact probably just past peak. 91
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1986 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 95 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
1986 Pichon Lalande (Pauillac) (96WA, 97WS
Slightly restrained aromas here initially with dusty dry character. Dark ripe fruit lies beneath a layer or graphite. Density of fruit flavors created best aspect to this wine for
me. Nice sweet delicate fruit and good backend support. Well integrated, smooth, long impressive. I enjoyed the forward flavors of dried fruit, good weight in mouth, and
tannins that seem sweeter here. This was one of the best wines of the night. 95
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1986 Château Rausan-Ségla 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
1986 Rausan-Segla (Margaux) (96WA)
Dark sweet rustic bold brawny dark fruit quality to nose. Underlying plummy fruit is quite
compelling. A chewy wine with well integrated tannins and nice sweet ripe fruit. Well
balanced, nice length. Very good personality with rustic edge. A nice play between
acids, tannins, and fruit. Fruit beginning to fall out a bit in terms of intensity. Mature, but
holding. 92
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1986 Château Cos d'Estournel 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
1986 Cos d’Estournel (St. Estephe) (95WA, 92WS)
Dense rich primary nose, slightly rustic and restrained. Bold quality. Seemed the youngest and hardest wine of the flight and the night. Rich dark chewy dense brawny.
Balanced, but fruit not as upfront as in others. Good character, but fruit seems a bit metallic. A burly wine, chewy. Still needs time to bloom. The question is will the fruit
hold up until the tannins mellow? Most tannic wine of the night, makes hard to judge, but not drinking easy tonight. 92?
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