At this age bottle variation is not at all surprising.
81 is an underrated Birdeaux vintage: la Mission, Ducru, Pichon Lalande, Haut Brion, Palmer, Leoville Las Cases, Margaux, Latour a Pomerol, Duhart Milon all performed really well with La Mission, Palmer & Margaux at the top. If you need a Sauternes try to get Les Fargues better as d’Yquem imo. Congratulations btw.
I would pretend I was born in 1982.
I don’t think its bottle variation. At this point I’ve probably had more than a dozen 81s from each of Napa and BDX (probably more like 20-30 over the years) and whenever you drink them side by side, the Napa cabs are better. The BDX bottles are best if you don’t have anything to compare them against, which is the faintest praise for a fading vintage (sadly).
This is not to say that there aren’t excellent bottles - I recall a really good Trotanoy. Just that if I had $100 to spend, I’d be spending it in Napa.
+1
thank goodness my wife was an 82…our mutual friend marshall and diana have been very generous in opening their truckload of 82s with us.
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this should be a fun flight. a couple of years ago, i was stunned by the beauty of the 81s from chalone and calera.
I’m a child of '81 as well. I don’t have anything to offer apart from joining the consensus. I haven’t had a lot from that year, but the best have easily been Rioja and CdP. The one bottle of Beaucastel I got to try was the best I’ve ever had.
Also, if it’s in good shape, I predict the Mondavi Reserve will be your WOTN.
The Vega sounds like a good call.
Getting ready to get started.
Beautiful lineup, hope they show well for your birthday.
Curious about the Paso Robles “Burgundy” – is it made from Pinot Noir?
edit: I see you included Pinot Noir in the OP…still really curious about this bottle though, didn’t know there was Pinot in Paso Robles back in those days.
Everyone, sorry for the delayed response, I have been searching for the notes I took that night but can’t find them. I’m guessing they accidently got thrown away during the cleanup, so I’m just going to go from memory here. All bottles were double decanted about 15 minutes before they were tasted and tried over the next 15 minutes.
We started with the ’04 Dom P. The “yeasty brioche” on the nose really stands out in my mind. It was somewhat heavy and full, but countered with a crisp, lively acidity. The bottle didn’t last 30 minutes.
1981 Santa Lucia Cellars Pinot Noir Burgundy
It was surprisingly consistent with the bottle I had late last year, if not a little younger. Solventy notes on the nose with a bit of a decomposing fruit aspect, the palate was somewhat more lively as the red fruit picked up with some dried cherries. It was thin and light but not tired and slightly bright on the finish. All in all it wasn’t a bad bottle and everyone found something to like about it.
1981 Château Montrose and 1981 Château Pape-Clement
These two shared a flight and I am going to lump them together because they both showed very similarly, with the Pape-Clement edging out the Montrose as the better bottle that evening. Cigar box and graphite (the Pape-Clement having a stronger note) on the nose, there were hints of darker fruit on both. On the palate they were definitely showing their age with the Montrose feeling flat a little over the hill, whereas the Pape-Clement was still holding onto life with a bright finish that belied it’s age. I can say that I sipped the Montrose after the tasting while we were hanging around and getting ready to cook and it started to show a little better and wake up with some more air, never falling flat. Of course, the Pape-Clement also got better with air and turned out be me my #2 wine of the evening.
I will note that the Montrose cork was soaked almost through and spongy (I learned you can use the prongs of an Ah-so like tweezers to pull the last ¼” of cork out of a bottle) while the Pape-Clement was dry and brittle and the capsule twisted right off, indicating it might have been stored upright for most of its life. Just some additional data points.
1981 Château Palmer
The biggest disappointment of the night. Oddly enough, of all the Bordeaux it had the best, most expressive nose but had a horrible metallic taste on the palate and finish. Some descriptors from the table were; hard water, river water, copper, iron and my personal favorite, “It’s like licking corroded steel pipe.” Don’t know what went wrong as I’ve never run across such a strong metallic taste in a wine, especially one that smelt so good, which prompted my wife to quip, “This bottle has obviously had a nose job”. I left it open all night and tried a sip again the next morning, still bad. I’d venture to say that 80%-85% of this bottle got poured down the sink.
1981 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
HOT DAMN!!! Wine of the night hands down. So open and expressive with fruit and earth and barrels notes all on the nose. The palate was just alive with flavors and felt so young with wonderfully integrated tannins that still showed their presence and a tart acidic kick that lasted all the way to the end. Everyone loved it.
Really the best thing I can say about this wine is the wife of one of the guys at the table just does not care for red wine. She will normally drink beer or a cocktail when we all get together. Out of curiosity and I guess open-mindedness, she halfway participated in the tasting, taking small sips from her husband’s glasses. After sampling the Mondavi she looked up and said, “Oh wow. That’s good.”
Due to some people backing out at the last minute and us just enjoying some of enjoying the earlier bottles a little too much, the Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse-de-Lalande, Leoville-Las-Cases and Ducru-Beaucaillou were not opened. I also wanted to save a few bottles for some other wine loving friends who wanted to make it but couldn’t.
All in all it was a fun night, and people got into it more than I expected they would. I will be doing more of these. Next time I’m printing out some tasting sheets though so I can be better organized.
I also want to say thanks for all the help from everyone here.
Your description of Palmer is brett. Too bad.
'81 wasn’t a great or long-lived Bordeaux vintage. Most of the wines are past their prime.