Wine List

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

In January, 1997, I had the exceptionally smoky, sweet, rich, impressively endowed 1957 Haut-Brion. The wine was fully mature, as evidenced by its dark garnet color with considerable rust. The wine was very aromatic, plump, and succulently textured, with fleshy flavors, plenty of glycerin, and sweet fruit. It is another example of an unheralded vintage producing a top flight wine. 

MAGNUM Rating 92 Drink Date 2015 - 2025

Neal Martin Issue Date 29th Jul 2016

The 1970 Château Haut-Brion is a First Growth that has probably been over-shadowed by the Latour 1970 during its lifetime. However, this bottle proves that it is not to be underestimated; it highlights the glaring gap that exists between itself and another First Growth, the 1970 Château Margaux that I tasted alongside. There is plenty of vigor on the nose with dashing red berry fruit, cedar and black olive - just very Haut-Brion.The palate is medium-bodied, well balanced and fresh, nothing over-ambitious, just a Claret in the traditional sense of the word that gently builds towards a sous-bois dominated finish. This is an excellent showing, stout and a little austere, and you could argue an Haut-Brion with its peak in its wing-mirrors. Yet good bottles such as this will continue to offer pleasure for another decade. Tasted June 2015.

Rating

84

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

1988

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

1st Jan 1998

Source

Bordeaux Book, 3rd Edition, The Wine Advocate

The medium-bodied 1984 Haut-Brion is attractively perfumed with mineral scents, tobacco, and ripe fruit, and has surprisingly good depth and length. It is not at all a big wine, but is soft, creamy, and ideal for drinking young.

Score: 88 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (4), December 2003

Score: 87 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (3), November 1998

Score: 88 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (129), June 2000

This wine was tasted from my personal collection, following the Latour tasting. The 1985 Latour is a soft, open-knit example, without much structure, delineation, and depth. The dark ruby color displays amber at the edge. The bouquet of tobacco, black fruits, herbs, earth, and new oak is pleasant, but neither intense nor persistent. The wine is medium-bodied, with sweet fruit on the attack, but it narrows out to reveal dry tannin and herbaceous notes. Anticipated maturity: now-2012.

Score: 88 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (129), April 2000

Score: 94 James Suckling, Wine Spectator, August 2000

Almost as great as the 1982. Dense and luscious with amazingly deep plum, blackberry and chocolate aromas and flavors. Full-bodied and full tannins. A wine with a terrific future. Try after 1998.--The Bordeaux 50. (JS) 95points

  James Suckling, Wine Spectator

Parker The 1986 possesses outstanding richness, a deep color, medium body, a graceful, harmonious texture, and superb length. The penetrating fragrance of cedar, chestnuts, minerals, and rich fruit is a hallmark of this wine. Powerful, dense, rich, and tannic, as well as medium to full-bodied, with awesome extraction of fruit, this Lafite has immense potential. Patience is required. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2030

The 1986 possesses outstanding richness, a deep color, medium body, a graceful, harmonious texture, and superb length. The penetrating fragrance of cedar, chestnuts, minerals, and rich fruit is a hallmark of this wine. Powerful, dense, rich, and tannic, as well as medium to full-bodied, with awesome extraction of fruit, this Lafite has immense potential. Patience is required. (Taken from the Bordeaux Book, 3rd Edition)

Score: 100

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate Maturity: 2000-203001 January 1998

The 1986 possesses outstanding richness, a deep color, medium body, a graceful, harmonious texture, and superb length. The penetrating fragrance of cedar, chestnuts, minerals, and rich fruit is a hallmark of this wine. Powerful, dense, rich, and tannic, as well as medium to full-bodied, with awesome extraction of fruit, this Lafite has immense potential. Patience is required.

Score: 100

Robert Parker, 'Bordeaux' 3rd Ed. Maturity: 2000-203001 January 1998

Tasting Notes

The late Michel Delon always thought that this was the greatest vintage he had produced. We often tasted it side by side with the 1982, because I always preferred the latter vintage. Of course, the two vintages are quite different in style, with the 1986 a monument to classicism, with great tannin, extraordinary delineation, and a huge, full-bodied nose of sweet, ripe cassis fruit intermixed with vanilla, melon, fruitcake, and a multitude of spices. The wine has always been phenomenally concentrated, yet wonderfully fresh and vigorous. The wine still seems young, yet it is hard to believe it is not close to full maturity. It is a great example of Leoville Las Cases, and another compelling reason to take a serious look at the top Cabernet Sauvignon-based Medocs of 1986. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2035. Last tasted, 9/02.

The 1989 Lafleur, tasted side by side with the 1990 on two occasions in 2002, plays it closer to the vest. The wine needs far more coaxing to produce the licorice, black cherry liqueur, earth, and truffle notes from the nose. In the mouth, the wine is full-bodied, tannic, backward, and very tightly knit, with mouth-searing levels of tannin and extremely high extract. The tannins are firmer, the fruit seemingly less sweet, but still extremely ripe, and the evolutionary process is far slower in the 1989 than the 1990. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2045. Last tasted, 8/02.

I had this wine both in Seoul, Korea in February, and from my cellar in December, 2008, and it was remarkable how identical the wines smelled and tasted. It offers an extraordinary aromatic display of spring flowers, camphor, sweet red and black fruits, a hint of licorice, and no evidence of its 100% new oak cask aging. Round and generous with low acidity, but an opulent, full-bodied richness that is fresh with laser-like precision, this stunning wine is just beginning to reach its plateau of full maturity, where it should remain for another three decades. A sensational effort, it is one of the legendary wines made at Chateau Margaux.

Rating

84

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

NA

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

30th Jun 2009

Source

183, The Wine Advocate

Although better than I initially rated it, the 1990 Beychevelle remains an insipid wine, exhibiting a certain dilution and shallow character. It offers herbal, earthy, raspberry, and red currant fruit followed by elevated tannins in the austere finish. It is an atypical effort for the 1990 vintage. Release price: ($215.00/case)

Rating

88

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2003 - 2010

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

1st Jan 2003

Source

Bordeaux Book, 4th Edition, The Wine Advocate

In a difficult vintage, Chateau Margaux produced a relatively mid-weight, soft, richly fruit wine with some hints of weedy tobacco in the aromas and flavors of this dark plum-colored wine. The wine is medium-bodied, reaching full maturity, and has surprising depth, ripeness, and sweetness for a wine from such a horrific year. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010. Last tasted, 10/02.

Rating

85

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2017 - 2021

Reviewed by

Neal Martin

Issue Date

28th Feb 2017

Source

229, The Wine Advocate

Tasted blind as a vintage comparison at the Valandraud vertical, the 1993 Lafite-Rothschild is a vintage that has never really appealed to me and this bottle did nothing to alter that view. It has a very austere, foursquare bouquet that leaves you wondering where the fruit went. The palate actually starts well with crisp acidity that leads into what feels like the vestiges of fruit that feel a little raw and green. Then it feels rather hollow in the middle, the finish a husk of what it might once have been. Not a successful wine for the estate, I would consume bottles in the near future. Tasted December 2016.

1995 Pavie: Medium color. Cherry fruit suppressed by high-toned wood; notes of minerals and shellac. Fruity and fresh but on the lean side, with spicy black fruit flavor and a stony edge. A rather restrained, dryer style of Bordeaux with a structure and shape more typical of the left bank. 

Rating

92

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2016 - 2035

Reviewed by

Neal Martin

Issue Date

31st Mar 2017

Source

Interim End of March 2017, The Wine Advocate

Tasted at the vertical in London, I had never really warmed to the 1995 Montrose despite tasting its many times. However, this bottle seemed closed to Robert Parker's remarks from 2014. It is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot that was harvested from 13 to 26 September. The bouquet is less vigorous and more approachable than the 1996 Montrose, initially quite taciturn, but gaining vigor with time and offering blackberry, briary and undergrowth scents, later just a touch of bay leaf and sandalwood. The palate is driven by the higher Merlot content, rendering this a relatively plush and comely Saint Estèphe, well balanced with very good depth, perhaps a Montrose for those with a penchant for headier and opulent styles of wine. Whilst the 1996 has the class and sophistication, the greatest virtue of the 1995 is the most fundamental: enjoyment. Tasted June 2016.

Rating

92

Release Price

$200 - 225

Drink Date

2002 - 2020

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

23rd Feb 1998

Source

115, The Wine Advocate

A pretty, attractive Cheval Blanc, the 1995 contains a higher percentage of Merlot in the final blend than usual (50% Merlot/50% Cabernet Franc). This wine has not developed as much fat or weight as its younger sibling, the 1996, but it appears to be an outstanding Cheval Blanc with an enthralling smoky, black currant, coffee, and exotic bouquet. Complex, rich, medium to full-bodied flavors are well-endowed and pure, with surprisingly firm tannin in the finish. Unlike the sweeter, riper 1996, the 1995 may be more structured and potentially longer-lived. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2020.

Score: 96 Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book (4), December 2003

I tasted the 1996 Ducru Beaucaillou on four separate occasions from bottle in January. The 1996 is long, with a deep mid-palate. It also reveals tannin in the finish. This wine is remarkable. It is muscular, concentrated, and classic. Bottled in late June, 1998, it exhibits a saturated ruby/purple color, as well as a knock-out nose of minerals, licorice, cassis, and an unmistakable lead pencil smell that I often associate with top vintages of Lafite-Rothschild. It is sweet and full-bodied, yet unbelievably rich with no sense of heaviness or flabbiness. The wine possesses high tannin, but it is extremely ripe, and the sweetness of the black currant, spice-tinged Cabernet Sauvignon fruit is pronounced. This profound, backward Ducru-Beaucaillou is a must purchase. It will be fascinating for readers who own the 1996 to follow the evolution of this exceptional vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2035.

Score: 96 Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (122), April 1999

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 23/04/1999 Tasted three times since bottling, the 1996 Lafite-Rothschild is unquestionably this renowned estate's greatest wine. As I indicated last year, only 38% of the crop was deemed grand enough to be put into the final blend, which is atypically high in Cabernet Sauvignon (83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot). This massive wine may be the biggest, largest-scaled Lafite I have ever tasted. It will require many years to come around, so I suspect all of us past the age of fifty might want to give serious consideration as to whether we should be laying away multiple cases of this wine. It is also the first Lafite-Rothschild to be put into a new engraved bottle (designed to prevent fraudulent imitations). The wine exhibits a thick-looking, ruby/purple color, and a knock-out nose of lead pencil, minerals, flowers, and black currant scents. Extremely powerful and full-bodied, with remarkable complexity for such a young wine, this huge Lafite is oozing with extract and richness, yet has managed to preserve its quintessentially elegant personality. This wine is even richer than it was prior to bottling. Iunquestionably last for 40-50 years. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2050. The wine of the vintage? The 1996 Lafite-Rothschild is unquestionably this renowned estate's greatest wine. As I indicated last year, only 38% of the crop was deemed grand enough to be put into the final blend, which is atypically high in Cabernet Sauvignon (83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot).