October 20, 2023 - i just love these old beaucastels… stylistically more austère, less fruit late into their development, the nose is herbaceous, earthy, with scents of barnyard, white pepper and damp understory. lovely. palate is lively with that white pepper note, mediterranean herb, and iron minerality. superb.
October 5, 2023 - WCC Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blind Dinner (The Chef's Table in Café Capriccio, Albany, NY): [Pop and pour. Brought as a mystery wine, but the owner said it was the worst of the bottles he owns. I would hope a sound bottle of this would still show well.] On the first pour, this was dead, but by the end of the evening, it had come alive, if only briefly. Still, not a good bottle.
July 13, 2023 - Very pretty aromatics, with sweet and delicate fruit. This bottle was showing a little bit muddy, I didn't really want to drink more than a glass of this, but it was certainly fun to taste.
July 1, 2023 - An Epic Summer Wine Weekend - Year 2; 6/30/2023-7/2/2023 (Muskoka, Ontario, Canada): [Tasted Single Blind] This was quite soupy and mature. Not totally dead but almost there. Not representative. Calling it oxidized.
February 12, 2023 - ESTG does Southern Rhone and Provence (Seattle, WA, USA): Absolutely crashed. I have had many nice 81's, but this bottle was totally destroyed.
January 17, 2023 - Commanderie des Costes du Rhone - Spring 2023 Kick-off (Gabriel Kruether): Birth year wine which is always fun and one of the few birth year wines where this is considered to be one of the better years of the wine. There's a hint of brett to this but overall drinking pretty well. The brett almost just adds a hint of interest to the style.
March 17, 2022 - Popped and poured (lots of sediment, but better not to decant). Fantastic nose with red berries, blood, garrigue, smoke and touch a touch of funk. Very classy and smooth in the mouth - a 'feminine' texture with 'masculine' aromas. Held up well and evolved in our glasses for over an hour - still enough for age but no reason to cellar for longer. Really enjoyed this (enjoyment level 96pts+!)
February 14, 2022 - Last noted 6/15 though sampled a couple of times between then and now with consistent notes.
Color/App: translucent light ruby core -> light garnet/fully bricked rim with good viscosity. Bouquet similar to my last note and near perfect to my mind: roasted cherries, barnyard, leather, mushroom, blood and smoke. As before, the palate is no longer the powerhouse it once was --mirroring the nose -- it is now more feminine and elegant; I kept thinking more like a grand cru Burgundy than CdP. While I agree with most here that this is not as great a wine as it was say 7-10 years ago, I'm still totally smitten with it. I believe this to be the greatest (regular) Beaucastel vintage ever, though it is slowly, gently fading.
December 11, 2021 - This one bottle of the legendary '81 Beaucastel was a "gift" sent to me directly by the U.S. importer, Vineyard Brands, some thirty years ago (there is a story behind this), and has been stored in my cellar since. Enjoyed this, along with the '89 and the '95 and numerous other wines, at a dinner party with long time friends. PnP and then decanted to parcel out sediment. Dark brick. Unbelievably complex nose, with toffee notes, my friends got chocolate. Plum flavors. With airing, the wine shows signs of age - I would not give this extended air time. While still excellent, this was probably much better several years ago. Unlike the '89, a bottle of the '81 showed better at a Beaucastel vertical attended nearly two years ago. On this occasion, I preferred both the '89 and the surprisingly excellent '95. Still, an excellent wine at 40 years of age. Drink up.
October 29, 2021 - Funky black cherry and plum with a dustiness to the fruit with earth and licorice nuances. Medium weight with nice persistence. Drink up as this seems past peak.