April 1, 2024 - Sweet but not cloying. Could use a touch more acid. Orange and spice. Nice aging arc but I would have perhaps expected a but more from a 1983. Still, at 40+ years, it is fun to drink and very enjoyable.
February 23, 2024 - Fabulous All Sauternes Tasting Dinner: Part Trois (Brad's Place, St. Paul, MN): Dark amber color. Drank a glass over 2 hours. Sweet pear tart, baked pear, spicy orange marmalade, baked apricot, medium bodied, baked fruits, dried orange peel, spicy botrytis, not particularly sweet and more advanced in presentation.
December 31, 2023 - 20 Top Wines of the 1983 Vintage: To conclude the tasting, we had three sweet wines. By then, I had reached my limit with wine and didn’t take detailed notes. Unfortunately, the Yquem (NR), which could have been a highlight of this vintage, suffered from cork taint. The other two, the Rieussec (91pts) with a slight wet cardboard note affecting an otherwise enjoyable experience, and the Tokaji Wine Trust Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos (88pts), which I found too cloying for my liking, were solid but not extraordinary, especially so late in the tasting.
November 25, 2023 - 40 years on: A global 1983 retrospective: After an initial jittery phase, this opened up and had some saffron, orange zest, almond, botrytis. while it had a good length it only had a medium body and lacked the punch you'd want from such a great vintage
November 25, 2023 - 1983 vintage horizontal with >20 wines, mostly from Bordeaux. Key observations: 1/ Acceptable vintage for Champagne with DP over-delivering, 2/ Laville Haut Brion is a masterpiece among the whites, 3/ Bordeaux is going strong at 40 years of age with stand-outs Latour and Margaux. 4/ No need to chase any Napa’s from the vintage, 5/ off-piste Italians kept up impressively with Soldera an undisputed medalist.
Tasting note:
Saffron, candid fig and other candid berries, orange zest and honey. Nice fresh acidity, still sweet but only moderately so. A solid Rieussec, but not my favorite vintage. Pretty consistent compared to the last bottle a couple of years ago.
July 29, 2023 - Very deep colour. Honeyed nose. The palate was surprisingly fresh and youthful for a 40-year old wine. Apricot, orange zest and marmalade, plus honey on the rich, palate. Just enough soft acidity to prevent the sweetness becoming cloying.
Long, complex, memorable wine.
May 5, 2023 - Drunk very chilled and paired with foie gras. I have had this wine three times in the last few months and it has been consistently voted the wine of the night by everyone present. This bottle was no exception. Displaying a burnt caramel color, it is the most evolved Sauternes in my cellar. Wonderful nose of apricot marmalade and orange peel. Stunningly complex nectar, gorgeously long, with a slight residual acidity. Heavy bodied and powerful, without being cloying. Spectacularly flamboyant finish. A truly memorable bottle.
April 28, 2023 - Typically a blend of Sémillon (90-95%), Muscadelle (5%) and Sauvignon Blanc (0-5%). Fermented in new French oak barriques. Aged for 18 to 24 months in French oak barriques (50-70% new). Tasted blind.
Medium-deep, luminous coppery color. The nose feels sweet and very intense with aromas of acacia honey and evolved caramel tones, some mushroomy funk, a little bit of dried peach, light fragrant notes of sweet exotic spices, a hint of saffron and an oxidative touch of nuttiness. The wine feels sweet, moderately concentrated and somewhat evolved on the palate with a quite full body and intense flavors of caramel and dried apricots, some exotic spices, a little bit of savory wood, light orange marmalade tones, a hint of balancing apple peel bitterness and a touch of saffron. Despite its richly textured and slightly viscous mouthfeel, the wine still manages to come across as very balanced and structured with its high acidity. The finish is sweet, rich and quite intense with a very long, complex aftertaste of dried exotic fruits and toasted spices, some woody tones, a little bit of saffron, light nuances of acacia honey, a hint of overripe apricot and a touch of orange marmalade.
A wonderful, fully mature Sauternes showing an impressive combination of richness, structure, fruit and evolved complexity. It was pretty obvious from the get-go that this was Sauternes - it only took a little bit of time to get the correct vintage and some guesses more to identify the correct Château. The sense of focus and intensity here grabs your attention immediately and the persistent aftertaste makes sure you don't lose the attention at any point. I'd say the wine is at its plateau of maturity now and won't evolve any further from here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the wine not only kept just fine for decades more, but also would evolve and improve in the process as well. Superb stuff.
March 19, 2023 - Le vin était ambré, intense, couleur de sirop d’érable. Des arômes de sirop d’érable, de miel, d’orange confite mais aussi d’épices, de cannelle et de clou de girofle. Il était intense en bouche, sirupeux sans être lourd, suivant le nez, avec une acidité encore étonnamment présente. Long, excellent, mais pas exceptionnel. Les épices et le miel ressortaient particulièrement en bouche. Je ne me souviens pas avoir bu un Sauternes de ce genre (ni de cet âge). Il aurait probablement été meilleur plus jeune (bien qu’il était excellent) mais c’était une expérience particulière…
March 11, 2023 - Candie's Big 4-0 (Spoon & Stable, Mpls, MN): Small glass over 30 minutes with my Honey Cake. Ultra ripe, apricots, orange peel, very sour, citrus zest, honey and spice. 91+pts.