Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Friday, January 12, 2018 - 12,5% alcohol.

Developed and quite translucent reddish color with noticeably developed orange hue. Very classic, savory and noticeably developed, but definitely not yet over-aged nose of smoke, beef jerky, chipotle and cooked bell peppers, some leather, a little bit of ripe blackcurrant, a hint of wizened dark berries and a touch of sliced green chilis. Very captivating and attractive, really. The wine is full-bodied, velvety smooth and quite lush on the palate with mature, savory flavors of blackcurrant-driven dark berries, some bell pepper-driven vegetal character, light smoky notes, a little bit of leather, a leafy hint of autumnal tones and a touch of cigar box and cedar. The wine is still nicely tannic, given its +30 years of age, retaining enough bite and grip to make the wine feel pretty structured, along the moderately high acidity. Overall this wine feels a notch more structured than the slightly smoother Cheval Blanc 1986 tasted alongside, but also a tad more evolved. The finish is long and pretty umami in flavor with complex, haunting flavors of pipe tobacco, some cigar box, a little bit of blackcurrant-driven wizened dark berries, light pruney fruit, a hint of peppery spice and a touch of smoke.

This here is a classic example of well-matured old-school Margaux with wonderful vegetal touch of bell peppers and chilies that lends a lovely, savory undercurrent to the wine without overwhelming any of the developed fruit notes or those mature umami nuances. This wine was probably the overall favorite in a tasting of five Bordeaux blends from 2000 to 1985, although I prefered Cheval Blanc 1986 - but only by an inch. Although the wine is still quite structured, it feels like it has reached its plateau of maturity some time ago already, and while it will probably stay there for good many years, I doubt the wine will improve much from here. My recommendation is to drink the wine sooner rather than later, while it still has its impressive, but already somewhat resolved structure. Superb value at 75€.

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