We started off the evening with a couple of magnums of De Venoges NV Brut, and then headed for the restaurant for a dinner featuring the 1985 Bordeaux.
Nicolas Feuillatte Rose NV - the nose on this was fine but the wine fell off short. They select the best grapes for the vintage and buy widely, so what is left gives you this. I much preferred the De Venoges!
2003 Ch. Tour de Mirambeau Entre Deux Mers - clean, crisp and cheap - the three Cs - what more can one ask of a quaffing white Bordeaux?1985 La Lagune - the nose on this was quite good, showing intensity of fruit and some depth, and it was medium bodied with decent flavour concentration and a bit of sweetness at the end of the medium length finish. Ready to drink and won't improve.
1985 Sociando Mallet - not as immediately appealing in the nose as it both lacked the sweetness of the La Lagune and was a bit tighter and closed in. It was better on palate, however, exhibiting some cassis and a tasty long finish - a solid classy wine that needs a little more time.1985 Montrose - good typical Bordeaux nose with some herbs and earth, rather ripe in the mouth, finishing a bit harder than expected. This wine is ready to drink but there is no rush. I've enjoyed other bottles of this a bit more.
1985 Gruaud Larose - this was an excellent wine - the best yet. Darker, great fruit in the nose with tobacco and earth, and mushrooms, excellent concentration on palate, and great length. A very harmonious wine that gives great pleasure now, and will last another decade. Wish I had some in the cellar!1985 Grand Puy Lacoste - another dark one with a vanilla and cigar box nose with an undercurrent of….currant. The tannins are soft and the wine has good length. It will hold, so there is no rush - it actually seemed to get a bit harder with time in the glass.
1986 Grand Puy Lacoste - this wine was not forthcoming at all in the nose, and what you got if you dug about a bit was more rubber than fruit. It is quite tannic, dry, and one wonders if the fruit on palate is quite sufficient to carry it to the time when the tannins have softened sufficiently. It is quite closed right now and it will either become quite good, or will just dry out.1986 Beychevelle - served as a mystery wine, we figured it was Bordeaux and I thought it was another 1986, but that was as far as we could get. Ripe with a slightly warm nose, lighter colour, a good backbone of tannin, but lacking fruit and too green and stalky to offer much pleasure.
1986 Rieussec - ah yes - nice finish to the evening! Lemon, honey, nuts….a dessert all on its own, just in the nose! Thick and smooth on palate and with good length.