April 27, 2024 - A bit past it’s peak. But still very deep and nice flavours
April 1, 2024 - Drank from a magnum. Decanted two hours prior to drinking. Brick red edges. Nose of black cherry, leather, meat and earth. Very complex wine with new flavor notes arriving over the hour of drinking. Tannins soft, but bracing structure of acid kept the wine lively. Finish long, but a bit bitter. Finish started to fade about 3 hours after opening.
July 31, 2023 - Dekantert. Moden og på hell. Mørkt frukt, lakris, sopp, gule krydder.
June 15, 2023 - 2hours decant. Amazing wine. Paired with deer and red wine sauce. Big, bold, round, fruity and with multiple layers. Just wow!
January 8, 2023 - Absolutely wow! Cork came out in two pieces, opened an hour before dinner. Just a beautiful spicy CDP. Along with the fruit, some brett, but only as a spice. Just a lovely aged Vieux Telegraph. Back in the day, the monthly flyer would arrive, call KL, order a case, they’d ship, Send an invoice, the wine would arrive before the mail, and I’d send a check.
Those were the days. Really nice wine.
September 16, 2022 - Good fill, spinning capsule, good cork. Steadily improved over the course of a couple of hours, but was never very good. Ripe, plummy/raisiny fruit aromas, but not a lot of fruit concentration left; the fruit runs out and the alcohol is sticking out on the back end. There's some nice earthiness in the mouth, but this hasn't added much complexity to compensate for the fading fruit. This is several years past its prime at least.
May 5, 2022 - Decanted for an hour, removed sediment, and poured back in bottle to take out. A tired bottle i'm afraid. All dried up fruit, leather, and plum skin sours. Really tried coaxing some life out, but it never really showed anything worthy. Nothing at all flawed...just a shell of what was probably a great wine 10 or so years earlier. I did manage some cherry wood spice, and a little tobacco at times...but faded back to dull leather and tart plum quickly. No black pepper or any grenache red licorice...really disappointing.
March 27, 2022 - Wow, another fine showing. The corkscrew just pushed the cork, and it dropped right into the bottle. Decanted and the wine was wonderful, in a great place. Yum, with grilled lamb.
March 24, 2021 - I think some people don't get the ethereal nature of good old wine. Yes, it's not what it was or might have been. I feel so privileged to be able to enjoy wine like this. I learnt about wine mostly from my father; we would have lunch together and drink claret, 1970 1966 and 1961 of the same chateau. As you tasted the older wines, each one tasted younger than the old before. But I remember clearly how the 1966s were, Palmer and Ducru especially, and they were better, but had the same delicacy of this 89 Telegraphe. I was very lucky. Palmer 1961 was magnificent. I still have one left, and a few other 61s. Takes courage and the right moment to open one. Ducru 66 a few months ago was magical. It still had a core of elegance and I wonder if wine made now at the same level will age in the same way, or last as long.
January 7, 2021 - This started off nicely but as time went on, a very slight TCA effect became clear. Sad, as it seemed to be heading towards a nice experience.