1961 Château Belair (Dubois-Challon)

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 89 points

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  10/19/2023 - vagrantone wrote: 88 Points

  First of four bottles purchased at auction.
  Med-top shoulder fill.
  One third of cork is dried out and has turned black.
  Not decanted.
  Unusually deep color for an older Bordeaux wine. One of the 2-3 deepest I have ever seen. Good clarity.
  Interesting evolved nose. Little to nothing in the fruit department, Cedary notes. A strange singed cotton candy note. Heavy earthy notes/decaying forest floor. A very slight pickled note.
  The texture is surprisingly light, in contrast to the nose. For the vintage, it clearly lacks depth and structure. Not much noticeable tannin, but what's there is drying note.
  Right call not to decant.
  Medium length finishing on cedary notes.
  A slight disappointment given he pedigree and vintage but still enjoyable with dinner.
  Past its prime.

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  10/17/2021 - Cailles wrote: 84 Points

  30x 1955 & 1961 (mostly Bdx): Tasted single blind. This bottle was not very good, only medium expressive with not much substance, no precision. The wine was quickly drying out. There were some pleasureable moments with one or the other sniff showing nicely mature notes or an ok-ish attack but overall no winner.

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  9/20/2021 - sirpat00 wrote: 90 Points

  Grand 1961 vs 1955 vintage tasting (Fribourg): Big 1961 vs 1955 tastings including 10 direct match-ups and 11 individual wines from 1961. The tasting was conducted in flights of 4, single-blind and with no previous decant with all bottles opened 1h prior to start. The line-up was dominated by Bordeaux reds, but also included 5 Sauternes, 1 Champagne, 3 Burgundy reds and 1 Ribera del Duero. The following observations are worth mentioning: i) 1961 generally came across as a better vintage today than 1955, ii) the performance correlated with the 1855 classification, iii) The most outstanding wines were outside of the Bordeaux reds with Veuve Clicquot Rosé '61, Vega Sicilia Unico '61 (both 97) and La Tour Blanche '61 (96) worth mentioning, iv) Top-performing Bordeaux was Margaux (95) in 1961 and Mouton in 1955. List of wines included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Aging notes of forest floor, red and overall pretty ripe berry fruit. Fresh with a surprisingly fruity palate, albeit with a somewhat weakish structure. This was ok and I wouldn't mind popping a bottle anytime I stumble across this. But nothing stood out.

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  1/27/2017 - DrinkBordeaux wrote: 89 Points

  1961 Bordeaux tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): While one of the least impressive of the tasting, this was still quite enjoyable. This obviously passed its peak awhile ago. Amber color. Cherry, blackberry, anise, damp leather, and mushroom. Quite lean on the palate. Noticeably high acidity that created a tartness. Fruit faded after two hours. I would drink these up now if you have them, as they are just hanging on to life.

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  11/22/2016 - robmatic wrote: 92 Points

  Thanks to my friend Eric for bringing this gem to my birthday dinner. I've learned not to expect too much from old bottles, and not recognizing the chateau as anything really famous, this was no different. But upon pouring, I was impressed by the first sniff and the first sip. A bit dusty, with a touch of green pepper, but not a hint of oxidation or degeneration. The nose got better quickly with a little air, becoming quite interesting with pleasant tea and herbal notes. Plenty of structure surviving in this juice, very soft tannins, sufficient acidity, and fruit that was faded but still kicking pretty well. I've had lots of wines from 1961 and this is among the most interesting and pleasurable.

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