May 3, 2024 - My first time with this vintage and based on everyone else’s reviews, this was a tired bottle. Just toned down in every category. This still was acceptable and was enjoyed with white fish, lobster and sweet potato. Revisit 2025
April 30, 2024 - Superb, pretty much perfection. Deep rich blackcurrant fruit. The fruit is matched by lots of delicious cedar and saddle leather, with a touch of tar behind. The structure is still good, providing lift and tension. Overall this wine is open and inviting, multi layered and very long - just a joy to drink. Drinking now this will last anotehr decade.
March 16, 2024 - Again excellent
February 22, 2024 - Much ore red fruited thasn the baron, aromatic with spice and herbal notes. Medium bodied, fresh and vibrant, redc fruit, plenty of interest with sopice, soil and herbal notes, vibrant acids, quite long. Lovely.
February 22, 2024 - 1989 Bordeaux Horizontal - London (Piccolino, Exchange Square): More red fruited than the Baron this is served with. There's a twist of grapefruit juice which complements the ensemble. Palate is very well balanced and together. Everything in the right place if softly spoken. After 30 mins in the glass there is the faintest suggestion of pine resin. A lovely pair which to a degree divide opinions around the table; I slightly prefer the Baron on tonight's showing.
January 1, 2024 - Decanted off the sediment about an hour before drinking. Could go 90 mins for two people and longer for four. Wonderful nose, cassis, earth, menthol, dried flowers later on. The striking thing is the elegance and composure - it’s very good.
December 23, 2023 - The ‘89PLL was on deck for Christmas Eve but I decided what the heck, ‘tis the season so tonight was the night…
Well, what an experience it was !
First, the cork…I wrestled with the foil which was stuck, and sure enough the top of the cork was grey and moldy. Even the ah-so was no match as the cork just completely imploded.
Color: medium ruby with ever so slight fading and browning at the edges.
Nose: boy is this ever deep and complex. Textbook Pauillac, each scent is really pronounced: burned coffee, heaps of cocoa, dry cedar wood, pencil, wet clay, all surrounded by a serious perfume of dry flowers, with slight pulses of dry red strawberries and other red berries.
Pallet: weightless but chiseled, powerful but mature, with each sip showing the same complex notes from the nose: dry pot pourri, dry wood, and oh my the coffee coffee coffee.
(Additionally agree with some of the notes below, dry mint, tobacco, green pepper).
This is a fabulous wine, not necessarily my favorite style as I prefer a bit of plush edges, but the experience is second to none.
The wine is at or near peak and won’t improve or develop more so drink up, maybe it will last another 3-5 years before a final descent. 96 points.
December 3, 2023 - Slight menthol or eucalyptus, less tertiary than most other Bordeaux of the vintage at first sniff. Impression of lower acid in finish left it feeling very soft, gentle. Some green in the palate. Tertiary seemed to develop a lot more over the course of the next few hours.
December 2, 2023 - Sadly my first corked bottle of this. Oh well. At least the 1983/1985 showed quite well in my little vertical.
December 2, 2023 - A sharpness / bitterness in the mid palate and aftertaste. A bad bottle I suppose (no TCA).