1999 Château d'Issan

Community Tasting Notes (70) Avg Score: 90.0 points

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  2/25/2024 - La Cave d'Argent Likes this wine: 92 Points

  The 1999 vintage of Château d'Issan (a 65/35 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) offers an intense aromatic profile of black and red currant fruit that is flanked with violets, baking spices, cocoa and loamy earth. Medium-bodied, fresh and without noticeable alcohol (12.5%), it delivers flavors comparable to the aromas and stays solid on the mid-palate. At this stage, the oak and tannins have fully integrated, resulting in soft textures that persist all the way through the lengthy finish. Sampled over a three-hour period from a pristinely-cellared bottle that had been decanted off of its substantial sediment, this showed best after the first two hours in carafe. Elegant and feminine, it is a delicious Margaux that is a joy to drink. Comparably cellared bottles should continue to provide pleasure throughout this decade, possibly longer. Drink now-2030.

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  4/7/2022 - Winegangster Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Chateau d'Issan 1999 - My mom's best friend
  
  Ok. Let anyone who has not watched porn throw the first stone at me... no pebble rain ? Sweet, we're between those in the know ! D'Issan 1999 has long been like Bree van der Kamp in Desperate Housewives's season I to me : un-tou-cha-ble. Too Margaux. Too arrogant. Too perfect. And yet, impossible not to imagine a world of kinkiness behind this strict appearance of the most classic Bordeaux blend : 65% of Cabernet felt like a skirt worn past the knee, a white button-up shirt, and a strict headband... but as always in Margaux, add 35% of ripe Merlot, and everything becomes possible. What if Mrs. van der Kamp was secretly wearing Honeybirdette's most daring lace ? It took me 22 years to dare staring at her, it took her 22 years to open her horizons... and here's the story.
  
  D'Issan and I met around the 1999 en primeur campaign, and my first ever Bordeaux purchase was like the smile-blush-run sequence with my mom's best friend. She would never notice, I would have the moment tatooed in my fantasies eternally. Of course, I wish I had dared to make the first step, but hey... there are moment when you're just a teenager, and the case of D'Issan 1999 faded away in my basement and my desires up to that day when I decided to put some order im my cellar.
  
  And here she was ! Marcia Cross in her prime who would have jumped from ABC to Pornhub : seductive, provocative, freed from codes and explict. Same strict outfit, but loose enough to reveal a shameless opulence and a sophisticated deep ruby lingerie. Eye contact. Politically incorrect. The wine swirls beautifully in the glass and reveals waves of smoky vanilla, ripe red fruits, warm pastry and a sensual hint of muskier aromas... it's prodigiously sensual. First kiss. No time for preliminaries. This wine imposes a sense of avid urgency to be drunk and Marcia and I have been waiting for too long : the embrace lives up to the promises but not beyond the long awaited scenario. It's full, it's round, it's mellow and D'Issan shows no restraint in this elegant debauchery, but no excessive efforts to call for a second round of cuddles either. Past a tsunami of torrefied coffee beans, pencil shavings, sweet plums marmelade, blackberries and fresh blackcurrant there remains an impression of soothing voluptuousness and bitter nostalgia. It's a classic aging Margaux, the best of MILF porn for sure... but post coïtum omne animal triste.

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  10/17/2021 - SixHedgehogs Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Ruby with touches of brown. Phenolic aroma, hint of blackberry compote and spice. Smokey too. Good flavour of very dry blackcurrant cordial, spice, oak and also a tang of eucalyptus. Touch of rancid blue cheese. Complex and evolved.

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  6/4/2021 - Maphill01 Likes this wine:

  Decanted for sediment. From the get go, expansive nose of violets, and light red fruit and some earthy notes. Lovely fruit still on the palate, with cherry, red currant and even strawberry balanced with leather and vanilla notes. Packed with flavor, yet still elegant and light on its feet, 12.5% ABV. Delightful.

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  12/24/2020 - AndrewCC Likes this wine: 92 Points

  A previous bottle opened four years ago was elegant and delicate, with a persistent and expansive nose. This most recent bottle was still excellent, but the wine is clearly near or at the end of its drinking window. Delicate fruit and a beautiful nose are still present, but after 60-90 minutes in the glass, its properties were rapidly fading. Drink now -- there is no upside in waiting.

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