WTN: 1986 Medoc at S&W

Our city group met for 1986 Bordeaux at Smith & Wollenskys


NV Agrapart Avize Champagne Grand Cru Atoma
OK this is Fabrice Agrapart, who got the Agrapart Avize name in split with his brother Pascal. Powerful and zippy style, big wine but with biting (in a good way) acids. Not for the timid. I’ll be interested in where this goes but I enjoyed a lot now. A-/B+


2008 Gonet Belmnita Blanc de Blancs
Bright, chalky, but seemed a bit short to me. B

1986 Ch. de Fieuzal Blanc
Depressed cork went right into bottle, A quick pour looked, smelled and tasted good, but when decanted color seemed to darken. But it turned out to be a very solid albeit fully mature white Bordeaux. Pear, almond, pineapple and coconut oil. Some oxidation, but what I’d expect at 40 years for a midtier Graves.I was happy with showing. B

My appetizer of softshell crab went well with both the Champagnes and the white Graves.

1986 Ch. Cos d'Estournel
A tad dank, a tad sullen. Some cassis, walnut, dry tannins on finish. B-

1986 Ch.Clerc Milon
Surprise of the night for me.Lively, black plum and currants, cocoa, pipe smoke. Gets more exotic with air, deep. A-/B+

Ribeye, with Brussels sprouts, sauteed spinach, hash browns, and onion rings

1986 Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou
One of the 2011 release reconditioned bottles. I’ve loved before, but this bottle seemed very un-Ducru,a tad ungiving, with more earth and Bandaid than fruit. B-/B

1986 Ch. Leoville las Cases
Horribly corked

1986 Ch. Talbot
This same group had a great bottle of 86 Talbot last month, this was ok but not on same level. A little Cordier funk, resolved tannins, liked but didn’t love. B

1986 Ch. Gruaud-Larose
Great showing, cassis and plum liqueur with saddle leather, barnyard, and violets, long and complex. A-

1986 Ch. Pichon Lalande
Elegant, suave, moderate black fruit with cigarbox and forest floor, but a little shorter than ideal, B+

1986 Ch.Margaux
Big but smooth, velvety texture, a ferric note over crushed berries, excellent length, A-/B+

Fun night, fun group, fun table (glass wall to kitchen), excellent service and food.

Voting from group
Gruaud 19
Margaux 15
Clerc 9
Cos 3
Pichon Lalande 2

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was the only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

[David M. Bueker]

Sounds lovely. Seems like some are starting to fade a bit.

Wow, the Gruaud bests Chateau Margaux. I remember how tannic the 86 Margaux was at Fabio‘s back in 2008, when our bottle of the LLC was also corked.

As good as the 86 Gruaud is, recently I’ve preferred the 83 and the 85 (and of course the 82).

I think once you pass 30 years it is of course bottle to bottle, even with good storage. We had an outrageously good bottle of 86 Talbot last month, from same case as this one. I've had better bottles of the PL from same lot, and better bottles of the reconditioned Ducru. While the Clerc Milon was upside surprise

I consumed my sole bottle of '86 G-L in '21 and it was glorious then, a testament to the durability of the wine as it had traveled with us from Berkeley to Indiana back in 1990.

With all those wines, the only one I have in the cellar is a half case of the Gruaud! Plus 10 other Bordeaux of the vintage. Thanks for the note - it is probably time that I popped a cork or two! A hard vintage that needed quite a bit of time to come around!

I’ve had the 86 Pichon Lalande a half dozen times through the years. Once it was exhilaratingly wonderful, but the rest of the times were puzzlingly underwhelming, unlike, say, the consistently brilliant 82 and 89 PLL. I still have a couple of the 86s left and I always assume they will benefit from more time, but perhaps those days are past even for the most structured 86s.