1988 Climens--Major variation in bottle color

So I saw a couple of good deals on some aged sweet Bordeauxs recently and bought a total of 5 bottles of 1988 Climens, 3 from one retailer and 2 from another. Both orders arrived recently, and the color difference was striking. The 3 from one retailer were noticeable darker than the 2 from the other retailer. The fills on both sets are fine, so I’m guessing that the variation was caused by light or heat exposure. I haven’t tried any of them, but plan on trying one of the darker bottles this weekend. Thoughts on whether the darker ones are too dark for their age?
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Hmmmm. To my eye, the dark ones look pretty normal for 28 year old Sauternes (oops Barsac), and the light ones look phenomenal for their age. ??

No, the light ones are correct and the dark ones are too dark. 88 was a very light year, unlike say 89. I would expect the darker ones to show more advanced, more secondary and tertiary character, less freshness, but not obviously flawed.

Yes, as mentioned above the light ones are correct (this stellar vintage has evolved at a glacial pace), and I would go as far as to suggest that the much darker ones won’t give you the proper impression of this wonderful wine [cry.gif]

But please do report your findings here.

Peter

I agree. You may not know it if you taste just one, but if you taste the light and dark bottles side by side, I think you’ll see a big difference. Definitely storage and heat issues can lead to a color change in Sauternes, but a darker color doesn’t necessarily mean that it was stored improperly. I’ve seen different bottles from the same source have significant variation, and I’m not sure if it’s a blending issue, bottling issue, variable oxygen transfer through corks, etc… just not sure why it happens. I’ve noticed this most prominently in the 2001 Chateau de Fargues halves, since I loved them so much that I bought a ton and noticed the color variation (less dramatic than seen here).

In this particular case, since all 3 from the same source are darker than the 2 from another source, it is more likely to be a storage or heat exposure issue.

Just had an 88 Climens at a dinner the other night and it was the lighter color. And fantastic

I plan to open one of the darker ones this weekend. Fortunately, I enjoy sauternes and barsac at a number of stages of development, from light and showing lots of tropical fruits to darker and more towards caramel. We will see how it turns out…

I agree that the lighter ones are what should be expected. All of my 1988-1990 Sauternes are that color regardless of producer. I wouldn’t expect the darker color in a wine under 40 years old. That’s excepting the 2003 vintage, which was a super hot year and has been dark from the beginning.

This board is a great resource. Thank you, Todd.

I’ve had the exact same experience with 1988 Climens, a wedding year wine I bought in several formats and at a variety of times.

The lighter bottles look like those I purchased on release and have cellared since. They have all been outstanding. Even the 375s are still killing it.

The darker bottles look like those I purchased in 2013 from a reputable retailer who vouched for its provenance and said that it was correct on tasting. These darker bottles are more advanced on drinking, with less freshness and balancing acidity. I drank them up. They were for the most part very good. Other than one bottle that showed tired/OTH with signs of oxidation, I doubt I would have suspected inadequate storage if I hadn’t had the pristine bottles for comparison.

I also have a few bottles purchased from another source in 2012. They look and drink very close to the lighter bottles.

The 1990 version in the same format is pretty much all dark. I took it to Thanksgiving, but we did not get around to it (and I have to contact the host, my sister, to get it back). The '86 and '88s I have were all light colored, FWIW.

Amazing pictures, thanks for posting.

I once had some pictures comparing the 1990 Filhot vs. their crème de tete.

Sort of similar story.

At least the nice thing with Sauternes/Barsac is that even if it was not 100% perfectly provenance, its still pretty darn good no matter what.

Especially when you make a Climens scoring adjustment +10 pts for anything they make :slight_smile:

At a wine dinner we had two 750 mls bottles of 2001 Climens. I got to try and compare both of them, preferring the darker, more developed and complex one. The lighter coloured one seemed stunted and straightforward compared with the darker one.
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Funnily enough, it just so happens that Jancis Robinson just posted a picture on Instagram of the same (or perhaps even more dramatic) color variation – but from the same OWC.

Reminds me of when I once sold 36 bottles of Mouton 1982 to one of the leading brokers in the UK. Those bottles came from various sources, had different levels and different degrees of wear on the labels, which i told them, but all the same they informed me that if I had some empty Mouton 1982 boxes to put them in, they could give me 10% more…

My point is that OWC doesn’t always mean that the contents have had the same “life history”…,

Peter

In addition to heat and light exposure, there likely is some variation in oxygen ingress via the corks over the years. Yet another reason why there can be such drastic bottle variation over the years, for whites, reds, and dessert wines…

Bruce

Agreed. Those two bottles either didn’t start life together, or one has a weak cork causing oxidation (which can happen without leakage).

So we opened one of the darker ones at dinner on Saturday. I was prepared for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised, the nose was slightly oxidative, although not in a bad way. The palate was very light, with subtle floral and tropical fruit notes, but the lightness was what stood out. A really nice showing, and I was pleased.

Caused by different rates of oxygen ingress through the cork, the joys of natural cork.

This could be accelerated by poor storage, cork contracting and expanding, resulting in more oxygen ingress than a tight seal.

End of the day, something you need to accept with cork sealed wines.