Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend

Good god. Peaking right now.
Huge aromatics on the nose. Superb weight, balance and texture. No rush to consume. Cedar and macerated black cherries transition to coffee and hints of maple. Blew me away. In raptures over this. Direct from the winery when I lived in Europe.

Opened 24 hours prior and decanted for sediment before returning to the bottle; enjoyed over the course of two days. The 1981 pours a deep garnet color with a near opaque core; medium viscosity with moderate staining of the tears. On the nose, the wine is vinous with notes of tart brambles and plums, green bell pepper, tobacco, leather, all of the decomposing earth and soft baking spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium, mostly integrated tannins with medium+ acid, borderline high. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is medium. Overall, a wine that is a reflection upon the vintage and at 43 years of age, that’s a big compliment. The 1981 is very much alive and will likely live for a very long time. However, it is backward, rustic, and somewhat tough to love unless you’re an old-school masochist. But I’m guilty and this wine is charming despite all of its green character. Drink now and over the next 30 years probably.

thank you for proving my point. What a strange vintage. Still lacking integration, the wine seems to go everywhere on the spectrum and at the same time, going nowhere. I really don’t like 03 in BDX. At all. It’s a breaking point kinda vintage where wines were disintegrated then and feel disintegrated now. I avoid at all cost 03.

Nota: review may not be really genuine as I am biased and I know it so I may harsher than normal.

I love this vintage now. Cedar, camphor and pine as well as dry roses and pot pourri. Long finish full of elegance. The marker of Pauillac for me is blood sausage/iron/cured meat and here it was just exploding. Great bottle, classic, perfect for a blind tasting.

SPEC TA CU LAR! Here you feel the absolute majesty of a wine who can be promoted to at least 2nd growth. Cedar, camphor, eucalyptus, butterscotch/4 spices, yellow curry. I’ve always loved ‘00 in Pauillac has I think it’s the last great of the classic style. Definitely this bottling is a keeper.

The bottle of 2014 Pontet-Canet showed better than the previous one at the 10-Year-On tasting in London. This offers much more restraint on the nose. It's quite precise, with greater mineralité seeping through the black cherry and cassis fruit. The palate has a sorbet-fresh entry, fine tannins and a silky sheen. The oak is fully subsumed after a decade, plus there is a little more depth on the finish compared to previous showings. This is a fine example of the vintage, and bottles should drink well over the next 12 to 15 years. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the Pontet-Canet dinner in Washington DC. (Neal Martin, Vinous, June 2024)

Well … shit. With a slight chill this is just sublime. Much better integration of oak than its other Pauillac neighbors. Charcoal ash, subtle pipe tobacco, dark berry compote. Superb.

Vintage 2008 | tuilé rim, brown, beautiful smell: autumnleaves, eucalyptus, leather, is now in its drinking window, great balance

I’m

Coffee rye with baked, black currants, dried blackberry, cherrywood, cedar, light pepper, potable, African violet, fig, sarsaparilla and thyme. Grippy, grainy tannins awash in tart black cherry, cinnamon and savory. Young and green with tight tart edges, but open just enough to appreciated the complexities. Underrated sleeper vintage that just might come together. Finish is obfuscated at this juncture. Espresso is my guess, though!


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