Community Tasting Note

Eric wrote:

Friday, December 27, 2002 - Well I have absolutely no self-control. Tonight we went back to Lampreia, and the 375ml of the 1990 Leoville Las Cases looked so lonely in my cellar I just had to put it out of its misery... I double-decanted it three hours before serving. The fill on the bottle was very good, and the cork was in extremely good shape, no signs of seepage, and the capsule turned easily. The moment I yanked the cork there was already black fruit and lead pencil pouring forth from the bottle. I decanted, rinsed the bottle, poured the wine back in and reluctantly corked it back up (it was already begging to be drunk).

At the restaurant we decanted right away about an hour before eating--the aroma was already spilling out of the decanter--I have never smelled a wine this exuberant! The color was inky black with no lightening at the rim. This is a 12 year old wine? When we finally got to tasting it an hour later the nose was screaming of cedar, lead pencil, and black fruit. Words just can't do justice to the intensity of the nose! The mid palate was lush and powerful, a bit tight for another half hour but finally loosening up and gaining a powerful, velvety smoothness. The wine displayed a lovely balance of tannin, fruit, acid and alcohol. The finish was powerful (45 seconds) and got longer and more complex as the night wore on. If there was any knock against this wine, it was that the mid palate was perhaps a bit tight and not quite as multidimensional as a few other wines I have tasted. Perhaps a couple more years would have helped to resolve that. But wow was this a blockbuster that left me shaking my head after every sip! Finally about 3.5 hours after the initial decant it started to dry out a bit and expose more tannin and cedar--time to finish up. What a bottle! Compared to other descriptions of this wine, I felt like my bottle was perhaps more advanced than some. I'm not terribly experienced, but I would attribute this in part to the 375ml format. All in all, this was one of the most stunning wines I have ever tasted. Incredible juice!

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