A member of one of the tasting groups I belong to hosted a tasting in honor of his wife’s birthday with an announced theme of Bordeaux. He outdid himself with his generosity, opening braces of 1961s and 1964s that he acquired on release and possibly a few of the other wines as well, and the rest of the group’s contributions weren’t too shabby either. It was a tremendous afternoon of friendship, fellowship, and great wine.
1961 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Drinking very well, with leather accenting ripe curranty fruit, it isn’t showing its age and blind I’d be inclined to guess it was the 1982 (until I had a 1982 later in the tasting). (94 pts.)
1961 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Stunning intensity and complexity, loaded with fruit with some earthiness and leather buttressed by nice acidity. Showing magnificently well but with a lot of gas left in the tank. (97 pts.)
1964 Château La Mission Haut-Brion- France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Elegant, with ample red and black fruit that plays second fiddle to the intense tobacco, minerality, and lawn fertilizer complexity that make Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion my favorite Bordeaux. (95 pts.)
1966 Château Palmer- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
A little floral, fresh crushed vine, spice, beautifully elegant and holding up well, but it was better 10 years ago. (92 pts.)
1979 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
More black fruit, more youthful, and more intense than the Pichon Lalande, which I’ve generally found to be one of the wines of the vintage. I was quite impressed with how well this was showing. (91 pts.)
1982 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Still a baby, showing lots of black fruit and lots of structure. A little more blocky, youthful, and monolithic than some other bottles I’ve had, it could still use some time in the cellar. (94 pts.)
1985 Château Lynch-Bages- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
A very unusual showing, this bottle was off and showing a lot of greenness instead of the pure red fruit I normally find in the 1985. As disappointing as the 1979 was surprising. (81 pts.)
1990 Château L’Evangile- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Incredible, spice, rich plummy fruit but carried with great class, with ample but supple tannin lurking below. The best 1990 Right Banks are so exotic and beautiful but still subtle and balanced, the proverbial steel fist in a velvet glove wrapped in a silk handkerchief, and this is one of the best (95 pts.)
2002 Vieux Château Certan- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
From magnum, coffee, violets, and perfumed black fruit, it is drinking very well now. (92 pts.)
1999 Château Moulin Saint-Georges- France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
In a good place, but a little stemmy and simple, just outgunned today. (89 pts.)
It is youthful but extremely approachable, with very supple and well-integrated tannic structure and exquisite balance. If I had several bottles, I would definitely give one a try at this point.
Great notes Mike—and here I thought you only drank good stuff when the Toronto posse came visiting
Question–were all of the wines treated the same for aeration time? Agree, your host was marvelously generous. VCC isn’t cheap at all anymore but is becoming one of my true fave Bordeaux—and I don’t have many of those that aren’t Sauternes or whites.
Mike, we actually gathered in the same room at Bistro Niko where we had Friday night dinner during your last visit, though it was a different group of people.
I believe the 1961s and 1964s were popped and poured, and continued to blossom of the course of three hours or so. No sediment issues until the very dregs, to my surprise. I brought the Leoville-Poyferre and Moulin St.-Georges which were double decanted about an hour before the tasting (the LP threw a ton of sediment). I’m not sure how the other bottles were handled before the tasting, but none showed any dramatic changes after 3 hours or so of air, as I revisited almost everything at the end of the tasting and my impressions were of mild improvement to just no fading except for the La Mission HB, where the last bit was just explosively expressive on the nose.
Great tasting.
The '61 and '64 wines, wow. Acquired on release, fantastic. Not many persons can drink their own purchases 55 years later.
I started buying the good stuff for cellaring, at age 30 (1995-96). So I’ll have to live past 85y, to do this. -And I will try, that’s for sure !
There seem to be two very different 1985 Lynch Bages. One of them is extremely green almost to the point of being undrinkable, the other brilliant and with almost no trace of green at all.
Seems to be by batch since If I open a case and drink one bottle that is green, the whole case is unusable.
Thanks, this is the first green bottle of the 1985 I’ve run into, and wasn’t aware of the problem. I’ve had the 1985 more than a dozen times in the past 20 years, each at least very good, but I think almost all of them can be traced to about 3 or 4 people who bought them from the same place at the same time and that probably came from the same batch. I’ve been as lucky with 1985 Lynch as I’ve been unlucky with 1990 Montrose (it wasn’t until last year that I encountered a good bottle).
What a shame about the 1964 Cheval Blanc at your tasting. I’ve only had it once, 6 years ago at a certain place in Tampa, Florida, but it was one of the greatest Bordeaux I’ve ever had. Much better than the 1961 Cheval Blanc I had around the same time. Of course, bottle variation may have been the determining factor but, still the '64 was amazing.
