The 2003 Lafite-Rothschild has an attractive perfumed bouquet with touches of camphor infusing the blackberry and bilberry fruit. There is a mahogany bureau hint. The palate is medium-bodied with a spicy opening. The sharp acidity slightly jars against the sweet candied black fruit, with blood orange and white pepper toward the mocha-tinged finish. It's missing a bit of sustain on the aftertaste, hence my more parsimonious score. It does cohere in the glass, so decanting will help. Tasted at the Académie du Vin dinner from ex-château magnum. (Neal Martin, Vinous, August 2023)
— a year ago
Served with the Vinloq System from a 375ml after CNY dinner
Day 1
👃Apricots and honey🍯. Also peaches, and with time: pineapple and some light florality.
👅Peaches, tropical fruit, acetone. Hints of vanilla/oak especially on the finish.
Proper acidity and med sweetness
Alcohol not exposed. Nice 👍
Preserved in fridge under preservation gas. Sauternes resists oxidation well for multiple days or longer without preservation. However, I didn’t return to this bottle for over 4 weeks
Day 29
A new perfume note this time that I didn’t be notice on Day 1
A little more soft and rounded in character now but the same score
Still drinking nicely — 3 years ago
Raspberry coulis, blackberry juice, mushroom, violet, minerals and barnyard. Tart, explosive purple fruit, some feral, bramble notes on the structured palate, and a succession of furry, prickly tannins. Finish is smoky and bitter. Really massive and opaque, in its own way, hard to evaluate even on day 2. Expect this could gain .2 or more in score as elements resolve. — 2 years ago
1986 vintage. Ripped through six bottles (one corked) for a 1986 BDX dinner @ Mister A's-San Diego. All bottles appropriately aged fill and decent+ corks. Double decanted and tasted over the course of 5 hours. Mix of powdery and stubborn (non-chunky) sed amongst the 6 bottles. Light-medium body throughout. Somewhat muted experience overall. None of the bottles (with variation) shone/sung. Wine is firmly on the downside of the bell curve with best days behind it (based on the 5 + corked bottle examples). There was none of the usual P-L flavor markers but the body hung in there. Pains me to say this but drink up now unless you've got a larger format bottle. Maggie (+) would probably yield a higher score. 3.14.24. — 9 months ago
Leoville Barton Saint Julien Grand Cru Classe is a lovely Bordeaux that shines again again over vintages. It seems to me that it never surrendered to the Parker impact and stayed true to its old school nature of restrained power and complexity at a good value.
This wine needs time to mature, it’s not made for early drinking and it requires patience and this patience pays of!
The 1998 is simply singing these days and I am so happy I secured a case! The wine is earthy with notes of dry leaves, dump forest floor, coffee, licorice, black currents and cigar box, the body is full and complex with lovely dry tannins that add a nice touch of sophistication and complexity, the finish is long and elegant. Old school and delicious!
My score 91, drink to 2024 — 4 years ago
John Malcolm
Rated this wine a 9.0 in 2021. Opened a magnum last night and let it breathe for several hours. Noticeably improved, so I am upping the score. — 13 days ago