WTNs: (Mostly) old Bordeaux: VCC, GPL + Indonesia!

Last night we had a nice little tasting of wines I've recently bought. The VCC was really cheap and I didn't have high hopes for it - it turned out to be my favourite! All the wines were served either half of fully blind.

• 1966 Château Certan de May - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol (5/10/2006)
  Dark for its age. A very full bodied scent of chocolate, plums, earth and a touch of tomato. The palate is full bodied, still robust and tannic, but balanced by sweet fruit and high but ripe and juicy acidity. Very good. Lacked a little in the elegance department, but a very fine wine.
• 1966 Château de Pez - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (5/10/2006)
  Very dark colour - no orange. The nose also seemed much younger. It had a touch of bottle stink, but then came cassis, and some dung. It was a bit foursquare but was a very pleasurable little wine. The palate was still tannic and fleshy, also a bit inelegant and foursquare but long. Good.
• 1966 Château Soutard - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (5/10/2006)
  Corked. Bummer. NR (flawed)
• 1973 Vieux Château Certan - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol (5/10/2006)
  Orange, very evolved. The nose wasn't at all as evolved seeming as the colour though fully mature of course. The nose was lovely and sweetly fruity with some meaty/salami tones. The palate had sweet fruit with no hint of it drying up, lovely high acidity, fine weight and persistency. Very good. Exceeded all expectations as the vintage isn't highly regarded and the level was mid-shoulder.
• 1978 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (5/10/2006)
  Fairly dark. The nose was softly fruity and earthy, even a little raisiny - classic, but seemingly younger than it should have been. The palate was quite tannic and fruity, a bit young. Savoury and cried out for food. Very good.
• 1979 Château Batailley - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (5/10/2006)
  Orageish, evolved colour. A softly fruity nose with plenty of cedar notes, a little earthy. The palate is rather full bodied, finely balanced, even robust, sweetly fruity. Fully mature of course and certainly time to drink it up. Good.
• 1998 Château du Tertre - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (5/10/2006)
  Fairly dark. The nose had initially lovely amounts of dung which disappeared with swirling (pity!). It had cassis, earth and a sweetness almost reminiscent of strawberry. The palate was quite acidic, very savoury, not as tannic as most 98s in my experience have been. Quite lovely and complex.
• 2002 Château Léoville Poyferré - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (5/10/2006)
  Dark. The nose has lots of blueberry and cassis and oak. The palate is very fruity but gladly not overly sweet, and very savoury and with decent acidity and high tannins - but it is just packed too full of everything. Not an enjoyable experience for me. Utterly lacking the elegance I want in wine.
• 2002 Château Rieussec - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes (5/10/2006)
  Slightly gold. The nose is lovely young Sauternes but with a bit less botrytis than expected: sea shells, glue, apricot. The palate is very sweet and intense, and has superb acidity backing it up keeping it from becoming cumbersome. Excellent.
• N.V. Hatten Wines Alexandria - Indonesia, Bali (5/10/2006)
  Made from the Belgia -grape. The nose is pleasantly fresh with lovely sea-salt aromas and very Muscatty. The palate is slightly sweet, light, balanced by fine acidity. Not a great wine, but pefectly drinkable - even enjoyable!

Posted from CellarTracker

Nice notes on some pleasant Bordeaux Otto.

'78 G-P-L is a wine that I wish I had had the cash to load up on in the early '90s; as it was, I got two or three 750s and a magnum. All were yummy, complete and strong bottles with some distance yet to go - similar to your note (but don't recall the raisiny part). I just could not keep my hands off them, as they were the perfect wine to enjoy when you wanted a top notch Bordeaux near/at maturity but couldn't afford the 'Big Boys.' Much like the '83 Léoville Poyferré that I also went through like water (I think I had four bottles of that wine).

Oh - the good 'ole days when retailers seemed to beg you to take their stock of terrific bordeaux at silly prices because they were getting in new vintages and had to unload the 'old.' I wish more of that was happening now - although I suspect there are some deals out there on the '01, '02 and (hopefully) '04s.

Thanks,

Mike

GPL is cheap, but it really tends (tended?) to last really well. I've recently had both the 85 and 78 and both seemed like they will have much to offer in the future also. We'll some time soon be having a tasting of GPL with a 59 - maybe that one will be fully mature? That would be a first with GPL, LOL!!

Now that you mention it, you are correct . . . all the G-P-Ls I've had have never shown to be past their prime. The oldest I've owned was the '75 (and I don't recall having tasted an older vintage). It too was still in fine shape (in its own bruiser way).

I've tasted '81, '82, '83, '85, '86, and I think the '88, '89 and '90. (I own the latter two, but haven't opened from my stash, and the memory is a little fuzzy that I have tasted those latter three vintages from other's cellars).

Anyway, only the '81 seemed to be at peak. '82 lots of life, '83 drinking quite well but not yet peaking, '85 another yummy, but not at peak wine (less structured than '85 but still young), '86 another complete wine with lots of life ahead. (I won't comment on the latter three as I wouldn't want to make the mistake of saying I tasted them - even though I believe I have - certainly my guess is that none of those could be at peak unless poor storage).

I beleve the '70s and '80s of G-P-L were under the same care as was Ducru Beaucaillou - another wine that is long lived, but one I've not had as often (always more expensive than G-P-L, so I didn't purchase).

But, a few years ago, a retailer was discounting some older bordeaux, and I purchased 3 bottles of '70 Ducru Beaucaillou. Two of them so far have been spectacular - and if not at peak, within days or hours of being so. Very complete in every aspect.

Wish I had some spare cash, as the retailer I got those '70s from has some additional stock (not as sweet a price, but if their source is as good as the first batch, well worth the $).

Fun to talk.

Mike