Community Tasting Note
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englishman's claret wrote: 94 points
March 21, 2020 - The 82 Léoville las Cases has a reputation for being a forbidding, brooding wine, making a detailed assessment of the wine over many hours just the thing for a COVID quarantine Saturday evening. I’m surprised a bit to see the nose so striking and forward right out of the bottle, reminding me of nothing so much as the 1959 with its crushed wild raspberry, intense pencil, cedar, loam, worn leather personality - undeniably lovely and easily landing in the 94-95 point range. Half an hour of air lends the nose more weight and impact but the complex aromatic details are obscured while the becomes an intensely beef blood, pencilly affair. Followed for just over 5 hours in the decanter, this never really re-emerges. Revisiting the last glass after 17 hours after decanting, the wine hasn’t oxidized but it isn’t improved, either. Make of this what you will, but I’m inclined to simply let these rest longer in the cellar rather than trying to achieve some sort of sorcery via prolonged decanting provided this bottle is representative.
I would be interested to try this 2 or 3 more times in the near future from different sources to see whether they all evolve in this manner. 94-95 points for the first half an hour, but admittedly if I had encountered this after a few hours in the decanter I likely would have failed to see its merit. Base neck, direct from importer, good cork.1 person found this helpful 6,229 views