1983, 85, 89 and 90 Leoville Las Cases

[newsguy]

Was part of an amazing offline dinner last night, and the wine centerpiece was this LLC vertical.

This was fantastic, from the sheer pleasure of sniffing and sipping these wines to the learning experience of seeing how the wine was from varying vintages to comparing them at different points in the maturation process. All of these were decanted in advance by our host, but don't know exactly how long. I'm guessing that by the time we started pouring these to pair with the appetizers, they had been in the decanters 3-4 hours.

In general, I'd guess the '83 might be at plateau stage, with years before the decline starts; the '85 still has a few years of improvement left; the '89 and '90 both need several more years to reach their potential (with the '89 seeming quite tight aromatically for nearly an hour in the glass).

1983: Very good nose of tobacco, green pepper, cedar, buttered popcorn. Excellent, layered flavors of mature Bordeaux, with a silky mouthfeel and just the slightest bit of ultrafine tannins on the very long finish. 94 points.

1985: Similar aromatic components, but much bigger in scale, plus a bit of earth and barnyard. Similar flavors as above. On the tounge, more glycerine than the 83, which resulted in my "silky beyond belief" scribbling. Not quite as layered as the 83, though. Very, very long finish. My initial score was 92, but over time in the glass, it kept creeping up. I think at its peak, this will be a classic at 95 points.

1989: Fairly closed nose, but still some more of that buttered popcorn. Oak not fully integrated yet. Tight in the mouth in terms of giving up flavors, but not tannic. This is really not open for business right now. Figuring 90-92 in terms of potential (and those scores could prove to be low compared to where this ends up).

1990: This is a big wine, with even a touch of heat. At 19 years old, it's still just a baby. There's tons of stuffing in here, which showed more and more with time in the glass. This could end up the best of the bunch. 92-96 points.

[This message has been edited by newsguy (edited 01-25-2009).]

[hotwine]

Dang, dunno if I'll live long enough to see my '04 LLC's grow up.

[wondersofwine]

Thanks for the notes, Newsguy.

[hotwine]

Visited Costco this AM and saw they had the '05 for a mere $289. TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE SMACKERS! @#$@#$!

[winoweenie]

Sounds like a killer tasting. This has been and is still one of my 5 favs from the Frenchies. Along with Lynch Bages they used to be one of the best P/Q wines in the world.(IMHO) Wish I had been there. Just to repeat I'm NOT attending Vegas this year. CB and I are taking a cruise or sumpin instead. WW