While on my annual trek to assess and buy BC wines recently, I had the opportunity to sample a couple of lovely French wines of the same vintage, both drinking beautifully now.
1982 Ch. La Lagune - the nose on this is no longer quite as sweet as it was a few years ago, but it has picked up some complexity and now exhibits some earthy, leathery tones, backed up by nutty vanilla and some spice. Smooth and mellow, the wine is now seamless and has reached a plateau from which it should not descend for quite a few years. I will now consider opening the case I have so patiently squirreled away since release. Should have bought two, particularly at the prices back then!1982 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle - this wine has also reached a plateau of drinkability. The nose had similarities with the Bordeaux, oddly enough, in that it also showed leather and earth, but with a slightly harder edge with a hint of soy and anise, and a bit more heat, the fruit being riper and the nose a touch hotter. Where the La Lagune tended toward a hint of cocoa, this wine substituted coffee. It had excellent length. I can't help thinking that when this wine was young, it did show a lot of sweetness, just as the recent vintages do, yet it also showed a harder backbone. I wonder if the more forward vintages of the late 90s will mature as gracefully as has this wine.
Not often you have the chance to taste two wines, both so well integrated and perfectly mature, that you have waiting in your cellar. So similar and yet so different!
To the people who have little patience with cellaring wines (you know who you are - the ones posting notes on current release 'big boys'), I say - you really cannot have any idea what you are missing when you drink wines young! This is what it is all about!
Can you get an impression of the music by listening to an MP3 file? Sure - you can even fool yourself into thinking that you are getting all that matters. But you are depriving yourself of listening to the whole orchestra, in a great hall. Wine can be a lot like that, too.