January 28, 2024 - Wine and Cigars on a cold and rainy Sunday (Atlanta, GA): '90s vertical tasting: Caparzo La Casa BDM, Leoville Las Cases and La Tour Haut Brion. I picked this bottle up from Martin wine store in St. Emilion on our trip to Bordeaux last summer. Glad I could share this with good friends! Color is red with brownish tint. PNP and paired steak and potatoes. Tobacco spice nose. Pepper and black fruit on palate. Black fruit. At or just a bit past peak. Very nice showing! Brad - heavypourwine.com
April 24, 2022 - 48x 1990 (37x Bdx, 6x Napa, 5x others): Haut Brion vs Mission HB vs La Tour HB. Winner and overall the best wine of the 1990 tasting as a whole was the spectacular Mission (98 pts) full of telltale Pessac tobacco and truffles. Layered, intense, sharp, creamy and vivid, long, superbly complete. The HB (95 pts) showed younger and less complex but my guess is that it should get to the level of the Mission with more air and/or age. The La Tour HB (91 pts) was good but with less in every category and it didn’t show enough finesse.
TN: Not overly expressive nose with dark fruit, minerality, smoke. On the palate it shows lots of structure, freshness, still slightly angular tannins but balanced by a nice creaminess. Medium complexity with fresh dark fruit, herbs, minerality, smoke and not yet much tertiary aromas. Overall quite nice but without anything exceptional. 91 pts. For more it would need more finesse and complexity.
Decanting: Quick double decant two+ hours prior to the tasting to remove sediment. Maybe 2, 3 hours in the decanter would have helped to make things smoother.
December 12, 2020 - Wow, this was something else. When opened (after considerable effort, as the cork disintegrated under pressure), we decanted to 3 hours and occasionally went back to it, with barnyard being the first aroma that came to mind. After time it developed into leather, wet hay, grass, and other earthy notes. Eventually we got just a hint of fruit, but barely, and by then we had consumed most of it. Probably could have gone another 10 years.
February 12, 2020 - Concentrated, powerful, beefy and leaning slightly to the rustic side with its tannins, the nose is just great. It is all about the cigar box, tobacco, smoked meat, cedar and spicy side, with a jumble of red fruits. This is not a delicate wine. Instead, it is quite old-school. This is close to its peak level of maturity.
November 24, 2015 - A classic aged Bordeaux. I am consistently surprised at how even middle of the road Bordeaux, especially prior to the more inform and heavy Parker style, age so well. Other wines at similar price points ($23 at purchase!) may have been good, but very few are terrific 25 years later. My notes similar to others: tobacco, leather, graphite both in the nose and mouth. While certainly not improving with further age, still drinking really well. Love old Bordeaux!
October 25, 2015 - Egentlig en av mine første modne Bordeaux viner. Spennende erfaring! Drukket til okse høyrygg Souse vide 72t med okseglaze, potetpuré og ovnsbakte rotgrønnsaker.
Vanskelig å få ut korken. Endte opp hel, men nedi flasken. Mursteinsrød med lys kant. Litt uklar/grumsete men flasken hadde ligget. (Hadde glemt å sette den opp i forkant) Dobbeltdekantert. 1,5 timer på karaffel. Lukter kraftig blyantkvess og lær, solbær og litt pipetobakk. Følger opp med samme aromaer i munnen. Ikke den mest komplekse vinen men fint balansert. Moderat syre og avslepene taniner. Virker veldig moden. Kun et hint av buljong. Utvikler seg lite utover kvelden. Bør nok drikkes innen noen få år, men bra flaske. 90p
September 26, 2015 - Dekantert 1,5 time. Blyantkvess, solbær og sedertre. Snille tanniner og kropp. Litt mer utviklet enn forventet. IN fyllnivå.
March 14, 2015 - Pencil shaves, pipe tobacco, bonfire; linear and elegant in the mouth, wonderful balance, old school claret.
October 16, 2006 - The first bottle we've had. Classic bordeaux nose..unmistakable lead pencil, cassis. Quite accessible on the mouth, tannins very smooth, fruit very evident. Medium body, not a big wine, but very well balanced. Drinking well now...will last, but don't really see many gains in coming years vs. now.
December 15, 2004 - This wine immediately showed an extravagant bouquet of tobacco, leather, and cassis, certainly some of the most mature and attractive aromas of the tasting. In the mouth, a bit less impressive, with a slight thinness and hollowness on the mid-palate. This wine should soften up with further age, but perhaps at the expense of even more of its fruit.