This is a very important wine in my wine edification. It was the first LLC I ever tried, shown to me by old friend and mentor, the late Tom Low, sometime back in the dim and now distant eighties. Over the years, Tom and I drank this wine together many times, experiencing the gradual evolution as the wine's aroma and bouquet homogenised, the sizable tannins melted and integrated with the boldly-fruited palate and the strong savoury, vanillin oak. On the eve of his funeral in December 2005, Tom had quietly arranged for a bottle of same to be opened as we mourned his most untimely departure from this planet. It drank superbly. Recently, I managed to pick up a few bottles of this from, what I was told, a very good source and tonight I decided to crack one with a friend. Unfortunately due to very bad weather our meeting was cancelled but I had already opened the wine earlier as a precautionary measure. So here goes:
Still holding a deep, dark red core with considerable rust and amber in the outer edges, this wine opened with a staleness that provoked an initial rush of concern. My fears were soon allayed when some half hour of gentle breathing (in bottle) and more than four hours later, I'm still deriving great satisfaction from sniffing and sipping this lovely claret.
The savoury nose has blossomed into a most harmonious, mature amalgam of cedar, old saddle leather, sweet earth, black olives, soft black berries, licorice, lead pencil and spice box. In the mouth the medium-bodied wine has continued to "sweeten up", now revealing a wealth of sweet red and black fruits that include a variety of plums and berries accompanied by notes of olives, briar, old leather and just a hint of road tar. With the tannins almost fully resolved and a surprising amount of refreshing acidity providing life on the palate, this finely-honed, smooth and satisfying wine finishes with admirable length and adequate authority. Although there can be no doubt this wine's day's are numbered, well-cellared examples may provide most enjoyable drinking for up to five years. 92 points.
At twenty-nine years of age, this Las-Cases is by no means the greatest I've tasted - the 1982 (97 points) well and truly takes that prize - but this little number won't cost you two arms and three legs like it's younger sibling - and as long as it's been well stored, I'm hopeful you'll receive some of the great pleasure I did tonight.
