A guilty WTN: Château Léoville Barton 1988

I was supposed to go out with a friend of mine for a couple+ Cantillons tonight. That was cancelled due to illness so I was left all alone on a Saturday, sniff. So what else to do to console oneself except to make a cracking meal (which didn't turn out so cracking afterall) and drink a bottle of cracking wine while reading a cracking book and listening to Renaissance choral polyphony? Well, the beef covered in herbs was a bit too dry and I hate potatoes but it was edible and was fine with the wine (though come to think of it an aged Rioja would have been best). The wine was stunning. So much so that I am very ashamed to be drinking it alone. I should have known it was the sort of wine to share with wine loving friends but sometimes greed wins over sense.

• 1988 Château Léoville Barton - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien (4/8/2006)
  Fairly deep red. The nose is lovely and savoury with a rather prominent note of cranberry. It kept changing very much, on first pour seeming almost Burgundian in its red berry and vegetal scents, then came the most pure and arrestingly beatiful note of cassis, then lightly charred oak came to the fore but gladly integrated fully and is now calmed to cigar box and earth aromas. The palate is exactly what I look for in claret. It is light and savoury, has much freshness, fine acidity, the purportedly hard tannins of the vintage are nowhere to be seen though this is a structured and savoury rather than a fleshy wine. The aftertaste is incredibly long, dry and savoury with cassis once again prominent. Showing well now, but I think it will only improve. An outstanding wine from a vintage I see as quite ideal.

Posted from CellarTracker

Particularily nice to read the positive note since I have some bottles of this wine in my cellar, once bought en primeur at some price that today probably would seem ridicularily low.
Cheers, Anders

PS. BTW, I might not make it to the chat tomorrow evening, since we will have a tasting with our group that is dedicated to wines bought at auctions and other mature wines. Keep the spirit up without me, which you no doublts will. A

[Robin Garr]

BTW, I might not make it to the chat tomorrow evening, since we will have a tasting with our group that is dedicated to wines bought at auctions and other mature wines. Keep the spirit up without me, which you no doubts will. A

We'll keep your place warm, Anders. Enjoy the tasting!

Particularily nice to read the positive note since I have some bottles of this wine in my cellar, once bought en primeur at some price that today probably would seem ridicularily low.
Cheers, Anders

PS. BTW, I might not make it to the chat tomorrow evening, since we will have a tasting with our group that is dedicated to wines bought at auctions and other mature wines. Keep the spirit up without me, which you no doublts will. A

Didn't you have this available in Systembolaget just a while back? IIRC there were some 80s Bx which I was drooling over. Oh well, my bottle wasn't too badly priced either at c.70 euros + 5e shipping - IMO a decent price for a wine so good in perfect condition and aged. LB seems to keep their prices low despite hype. Which is nice. I hope they continue, it's one of the few top producers that I have money to buy and it's perhaps also the one most to my taste - a happy coincidence, no?

Vi ses kanske (sp?) nästa vecka på Chat?

Otto