Mostly Margaux

YH Beijing, SF
Tasted Saturday, April 25, 2026 by ohne_musik with 36 views

Flight 1 - Apéritifs (2 Notes)

Flight 2 - BAMA (2 Notes)

  • 1996 Château Bel Air-Marquis d'Aligre 92 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Slightly riper than the 95, tangy, red and black cherry driven fruit, a dose of cassis and tobacco with a hint of pyrazines, friendly claret, with more depth and persistence on the finish.

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  • 1995 Château Bel Air-Marquis d'Aligre 91 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Beautiful nose, full of red fruit, flowers and cassis-inflected spice. Palate is lively with red fruit, spice and oak, but a bit simple and lacking in ampltude. A classic luncheon claret, but really a wonderful nose. 94 nose, 90 palate, 91 overall.

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Flight 3 - Rausan Segla and Palmer (4 Notes)

  • 1986 Château Rausan-Ségla 95 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Due to a mix-up, Ed and I both ended up bringing the '86 Rausan Segla. Whereas my bottle was corked, Ed's was singing. Excellent nose - masculine, muscular, Latour-leaning. Palate is dark and sexy, but with bring pings of sour cherry and some sort of mysterious incense. A "hello there soldier" kind of wine - still grippy, with a really long mineral-inflected finish. Terrific.

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  • 1988 Château Rausan-Ségla 93 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Oh my, this is super delicious. Tangy, lighter bodied and brighter than the 86 and 90, this is almost a glou-glou version of 80s bordeaux. Full of sour morello cherries, cherry pits, and chalky minerals, this takes me very much to Fleurie or Morgon Cote du Py. It doesn't have the complex profile of the 86 or the 90, but in a way this is the wine I want to drink every night. So much pleasure from it.

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  • 1990 Château Rausan-Ségla 92 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    1990s continue to be a bit polarizing. It's more saturated than the 86 and 88, more tannin and tobacco, and the fruit veers more away from cherry into ripe plum territory. More mineral, more unresolved oak, and simultaneously younger-riper and showing a bit more leathery fruit than the other wines on the table. I think the acidity still pulls it together and ultimately I like this a bit more than others at the table. But it gives the weird sensation of both needing another 10 years and possibly having the fruit fall off soon. So I'd probably still drink this sooner rather than too much later.

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  • 1988 Château Palmer 95 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    A treat to have this side-by-side with the 88 Rausan. This is the more complete wine - the same zingy acidity, but with a touch more heft and sapidity. More merlot forward for sure, with sauve red fruit, smoke and spice. Still, it's very close between this and the 86 Rausan for WOTF.

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Flight 4 - Margaux, Margaux (3 Notes)

  • 1989 Château Margaux 96 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Fabulous & WOTD for most at the table. The nose is sexy, if not as demonstrative as the '90, but this is the complete package - bright acidity, sunny fruit, dark red fruit underlined by clay, cassis and leather. Framed by ripe and mostly resolved tannins, with a long long finish. A clear step up from the flight of Rausan and Palmer, and a borderline wow wine. 96-97

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  • 1990 Château Margaux 95 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Blown away by the spectacular nose! This is what I think about when people talk about the Margaux perfume. Evocative of an English garden, full of red and purple flowers, with a touch of sandalwood and cassis. I want to smell this all day. The palate doesn't quite live up to the nose, still excellent, but not as much pinpoint precision and complexity as the '89... it even shows a touch hollow on the mid-palate -- a common them I find with the '90s. 97-98 for the nose, 93 for the palate.

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  • 1999 Château Margaux 94 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

    Clearly a younger wine than anything else on the table. Juicy plums, vibrant acidity, a touch of brett, and a dense midpalate that still needs some time to resolve. A touch of sucrosity on the finish as well. I think this has the makings of a superb Margaux in another 15 years or so, but it hasn't settled into its prime yet. 94 with upside.

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Flight 5 - Stickies (2 Notes)

  • 1988 Château Coutet Barsac 92 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac

    Very similar impression to 3 years ago. Mouthwatering acidity, pineapple and barley sugar. It is delicious and juicy, with a touch of bracing grapefruit pith bitterness. While it doesn't have the kaleidescopic complexity of the best '88s, the acidity makes it a sauternes that I would want to drink often.

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  • 1988 Château Rieussec 94 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    5 years since I last had this, and at almost 40 years old it still feels like an adolescent. Bigger and sweeter than the Coutet, with more botrytis, pastry cream, and golden raisin. The high acidity makes this a vintage of Rieussec that I like more than others, but I feel like it needs another 20 years to really show all of it's cards.

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