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1989 Chateau Cordeillan Bages - Question

I've received a case of these about two months ago. Upon opening my first bottle (Saturday), I discovered it to be quite tight. With about 4 hours of decanting, however, this opened up **beautifully**, and is one of the finest Bordeaux wines I've ever encountered. It was a gift, and the first thing I did (after saying thank you), was go to winesearcher.com to see what it was worth. Nothing from that year showed up. Other years listed pretty cheap, so I didn't realize I had anything too great. That is, not until Saturday.

Since drinking it, I checked it out on winespectator.com, discovering a rating of 95. But I am still unable to find any more 1989's for sale (winesearcher.com, winezap.com). Does anyone have any personal experience with this wine or know of any place that is selling it? Is it not uncommon to find that certain Bordeaux wines from 1989 are not available? I assume there has to be more of these cases somewhere!!

Thanks in advance

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Reply to
Vincent
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Yes, it is a modest claret that doesn't rate anything like that score you say the Speculator gave it. You probably won't see much on the secondary market, because it was bought and drunk up several years ago.

Nice of your friends to give you a whole case! I'd look at drinking it up over the next couple of years.

Reply to
Bill Spohn

] >Since drinking it, I checked it out on winespectator.com, discovering a ] >rating of 95. But I am still unable to find any more 1989's for sale ] >(winesearcher.com, winezap.com). Does anyone have any personal experience ] >with this wine ] ] Yes, it is a modest claret that doesn't rate anything like that score you say ] the Speculator gave it. You probably won't see much on the secondary market, ] because it was bought and drunk up several years ago. ] ] Nice of your friends to give you a whole case! I'd look at drinking it up over ] the next couple of years.

Indeed. Cordeillan-Bages is mostly known as a hotel, in the excellent Relais & Chateaux chain. The vineyard comprises only 2 ha (5 acres) with an annual production of around 12,000 bottles. Therefore it is unsurprising that the '89 would be hard to find. This might be true for any wine that old with such a small production. Still a wonderful year, and properly aged it should be a very pleasant claret.

I actually spent 3 nights at the hotel about 10 years ago while touring in the Medoc, I can recommend it. However the restaurant service was embarrasingly bad, IIRC the other couple we were with complained to R&Ch. I think we waited an hour in between courses.

Funny that the speculator would rate this all that highly, I remember a fairly austere wine. Haven't had any with some age, though.

HTH, Vincent.

-E

Reply to
Emery Davis

Thanks Emery, for the chateau information as well as the hotel recommendation. I'd actually discovered the hotel's web site while googling in hopes of finding more wine. Looked interesting, but nothing better than hearing it from someone who's been there (we are planning a trip to France in the next 2-3 years).

Apparently aging works for the 1989 vintage. WS doesn't seem to think too highly of other vintages of this wine. In this case though, I certainly can't argue with them.... "Super Pauillac. Racy, powerful and built for aging. This is a baby Lynch-Bages. Inky color. Wonderful fresh aromas of mint, raspberry and cherry. Full-bodied, with steely tannins and a long finish of berries and cassis.--1989 Bordeaux horizontal. Best after 2008. (JS)"

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Reply to
Vincent

We also visited the Chateau this year for two nights in July. I'm pleased to say the service has improved considerably. All in all, dining in the restaurant was the stand out gastronomic experience of my life so far (an inexperienced life, but hey). The sommelier inparticular was very patient with my newbie Medoc questions ;)

And of course, we had the Chateau Cordeillan-Bages, 1997 I think. I'm not a millionaire. I was very impressed, it offered all I expected of decent level Bordeaux. Very formal, the kind of wine you sit up straight to drink.

Dan

Reply to
Dan Gravell

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