NobleRottersSydney - top 86 Bdx (mostly) with Grange

In honour of one of those scary ‘0’ birthdays, Gordon treated nine fellow Rotters and guests to a selection of grand old Bordeaux from his cellar. Bought at a time before first growths became mere status symbols or default investment tools, and before Bordeaux was over-run by celebrity consultant winemakers, these bottles are partly a 30-year step back in time, but also a celebration of just how great Bordeaux can be. What a shame none of us can afford to buy wines of this pedigree any more, even a few bottles, let alone the full cases of which these bottles were originally a part. And what foresight (and more importantly, patience) to keep them the three decades they’ve clearly needed to show anywhere near their best. All bottles were uncorked the previous evening, then vacuvin stoppered until tonight. They were double decanted (the Mouton got a double-double decant!) from 4 pm prior to the dinner, where they were drunk in the sequence below from about 7.15 to 9.30. And Stephen, suffering the same chronological affliction, pitched in a top-notch champers and a famous dessert wine.

• 2004 Joseph Perrier Champagne Cuvée Josephine

  France, Champagne

  {cork, 12%} (Stephen) Lovely, slightly aging, leesy nose. Cheese, peach, grapefruit. The palate is dry, crunchy and still fresh. Flavours of yeast, sweet biscuits and seashells. It’s only really light/medium-bodied, the fine bubbles have plenty of aggression, and the finish is long and fresh. Very drinkable indeed. More-ish. Another decade won’t hurt this at all.

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• 1989 Château Lafite Rothschild

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  {cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Garnet/brick colour. Looks about its age. The nose is straight from the top shelf; aged leather, cigar-box, currant, graphite. Absolutely gorgeous. The palate is good; light/medium-bodied, with aged currant and soft cedary flavours, but it’s a just a fraction hollow and disappointing after the nose was so overwhelmingly impressive. It’s nicely balanced across the palate; the tannins are now softly dusty and only quite lightweight. It seems mean to be anything but effusive with praise; if the wine has any fault it’s that the nose over-promises and the palate under-delivers, relatively speaking. Objectively, though, this is wonderful, although I wouldn’t be holding it longer, lest a faint trace of bitterness on the finish pushes through too much. This is enticingly ready to drink now.

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• 1986 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  {cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Mid garnet. There’s a slight naphthalene, moth-ball hint on the nose, despite the decant it’s had; seems a bit dull and muted after the 89 Lafite; the palate has somewhat fading red fruits, a bit anonymous. For all that the fruit has largely departed, the rest of the structure is pretty tidy, with soft dusty tannins, and medium acidity still hold up. The overall impression is of a wine a bit blocky and hard-edged, with a medium-length finish. It doesn’t have a lot of charm, and amongst tonight’s shining stars it was probably the dud, but on its own it would be fine, even if not a truly memorable experience. Ready to drink.

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• 1986 Château Gruaud Larose

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  {cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Brick-red/mahogany colour. The oldest-looking wine of the night. This was the only wine with any malbec in it (a mere 2%), but you’d swear it made all the difference. This almost smells new-world-like, with coconut/vanilla-like aromas of oak, along with intense currants. The palate is not quite so brawny as last time (2011) but it’s still a take-no-prisoners style of wine. There are chocolatey flavours, malt, spice; it’s medium/full-bodied but the impression is heightened by tannins which have softened right out, giving the texture a smooth, almost glassy mien. It finishes medium-length; I thought it bit more impressive four years ago. On this showing, ready to drink.

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• 1986 Château Léoville Las Cases

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien

  {cork, 13%} (Gordon) Well, there does appear to be some glacial development finally happening here. The lighting was low enough that I couldn’t properly judge colour any more, but this seemed plenty dark still. It has a polished leather and currant nose, not young, but hardly aged. This also had a chocolate and malt quality not unlike the two preceding St Juliens, but this was far richer, with assertive black fruit flavours, medium/high chalky tannins, and medium acid. It’s resolutely full-bodied for Bordeaux; it would qualify as full-bodied by pretty well any 30-year-old wine standard I should think. Dry palate, but rich, with a cedary quality to the long finish. Great richness on the mid-palate; all of which aids in the balance. Drink any time over the next twenty years – or longer – I reckon, on this showing. And give it a decent decant first.

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• 1986 Penfolds Grange

  Australia, South Australia

  ) {cork, 13.7%} (Gordon) There had to be one cat among the pigeons, and this was it. Present here as much for being a great 1986 as for its status as the “Southern hemisphere’s one true first growth” in Hugh Johnson’s words of thirty years ago. For all Schubert’s philosophical modelling of his flagship red on Bordeaux, this could hardly be a bigger contrast to its rivals from the Medoc. It’s darker in colour, and fairly youthful in aroma (relatively) but it fairly shrieks of vanilla and coconut, and mint too. It has meaty notes, still parades its US oak flavours along with slightly red-jammy fruits and a touch of malt and cocoa. Full-bodied, with medium/high powdery tannins, medium acid, and a long, even, powerful finish, it was just so different to the other reds that the contrast jarred for me. Others liked it more, at the time. Not that I didn’t, but it was rather like leaping from Mozart to Wagner and then back again. The quality isn’t in question, just the context. I rather expect that a lone first growth would have looked equally out of place in a line-up of Penfolds reds… Still plenty of time on this showing; again, decant well, and drink with, well, not a whole bunch of top Bordeaux!

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• 1986 Château Lafite Rothschild

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  {cork, 12.5%} (Gordon) Fairly deep garnet, although lighter and more brick-tinged than the Las Cases, for instance. Dense, ripe, large-scale nose of currants and earth. Seems quite oaky too. The palate is medium/full-bodied, with medium chalky tannins, a slightly grainy texture and beautifully aging, classically cedary Bordeaux flavours. As with most of the wines tonight, it’s the palate coverage that impresses; every part of the tongue is coated with wonderfully developed fruit. Thirty years aging has left this positively luminous, although it’s more forceful than enchanting, so I guess it’s towards the more extreme end of Lafite’s usual style. Long dry finish, more impressive than enchanting. Lafite’s tilt at Latour, perhaps? On this tasting, will go another 20 years easy.

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• 1989 Château Haut-Brion

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  {cork, 13%} (Gordon) This is the third of Gordon’s bottles I’ve shared in the last half-dozen years, and this completely consistent experience confirms my judgement of this as Jederman, a sort of Beethoven’s Ninth among wines. I can’t imagine any wine-lover, whatever their prejudices, not swooning at this offering. It has a perfect nose of currants, graphite, pepper and spice, cedar, tobacco…the list goes on. The palate has a spicy freshness to it; seems both youthful and aging at the same time; open and seductive yet still riding on a structure of medium/high dusty tannins, medium/full-bodied weight; there’s plenty of structure here, make no mistake. The finish lasts forever in the mouth and for a lifetime in the mind. As close to faultless as any wine could be. I don’t think it will last as long as either of the wines which flanked it tonight – the 86 Lafite & Mouton – but it has a luminous beauty which they will never possess. Drink up and give grateful thanks for the experience.

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• 1986 Château Mouton Rothschild

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  {cork, 13%} (Gordon) Amazingly dark for thirty year old. Rivals the Grange. Surprisingly youthful nose of coconut and oak. And black fruit. You’d pick this as five years old, not thirty. Brooding and intense. You could fall into this and be lost forever. You’d swear the palate has some sweet new-world fruit in there; it’s almost jammy in its fruity richness. The wine appears to have lived in some kind of stasis for a quarter of a century; it’s still tight, with medium/high chalky tannins, medium acid; absolutely full-bodied in weight, and a long finish. Massive and impressive, but really far too young to drink. I guess this will be quite something in another quarter-century or more; how’s the 1945 drinking these days? This is all about potential still. Drink in, oh, I dunno, 2060 or so?

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• 1978 Seppeltsfield Para Vintage Tawny

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  {cork, 20%} (Stephen) Ancient nose of tea, caramel and rancio characters. Smells more hot than sweet. The palate confirms this; it’s full-bodied, wildly feral and exciting, tasting of old barrels, melted carpet, acid rain; it’s like driving a lap of Spa with Nikki Lauda. Exotic, sort of medium-sweet, with classic tawny oaky characters. Volatile, but it works. And alcoholic too. An endless length of finish which changes like a kaleidoscope. A great and quirky wine; a tawny-style, single-vintage, fortified grenache/shiraz blend which spends 20 years in barrel before bottling. Decanted off the sediment at the start of the evening.

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Sensational night, no surprises there. Thanks to Stephen for topping and tailing the evening, and especially to Gordon for providing such wines to savour. What an example of outrageously extravagant generosity. Long may it continue!