Leoville Las Cases Vertical Tasting

Saturday we did our mbuttive tasting of Leoville Las Cases at the lovely home of one of the contributors of 2 wonderful bottles. Each flight was served with small plates such as veal with morels in demiglace, elk tenderloin with figs, pork tenderloin with asian spices, the opening Bollinger Vielles Vignes 1996 with salmon caviar and creme fraiche, great mousse, lovely aopples and pears nose and taste a wonderful start.

All wines decanted 3 hours prior to tasting.

Flight 1 '82, '86, '90. '86 clearly won this flight with pencil shavings, tobacco, cedar and spice nose, lots of black fruit in midpalate. Long finish, wonderful silky mouth feel. Tannins were completely resolved. '82 definitely too vegetal in nose, tannins not resolved for 24 years, '90 was close to '86 in quality just slightly dry tannins still to be as well liked.

Flight 2 '94, '97, '99. This was a difficult flight as all 3 of these wines showed well even the youngish '99 that needs maybe 5 more years to be great. All 3 were fat, rich, deep wines with notes of cbuttis in '94 and '99 and chocolate in '99 that I don't taste that often in Leoville. '94 won this flight simply because it has had more time to mature. Would definitely be a tossup in 5-10 years on all of these

Flight 3 '01, '03, '95. This was an odd flight because the '01 and '03 were more of a futures tasting than anything else. Was a little disappointed in the '95 because there was some TCA taint that spoiled what could have been a great wine. Opened marvelously for '95 that I have tasted before as very tight and reluctant to open. Took 10-15 minutes for the TCA to back off giving a cigar box, and black fruit nose. The absolute best was the '01. This may be better than any first growths from '01 that I have tasted. If you are a Leoville lover this may be the wine of the decade. The '03 was still very tight and reluctant but loaded with fruit. Shows a lot of promise but I always have trouble with Bordeauxs this young. Tannins are still very dense.

Them last wine was served by itself with French cheeses. It was only opened 30 minutes before serving and was a perfectly store '75. It turned out to be only slightly below the capsule on decanting. Sediment was amazing as this wine was laid down in '78 and has not been disturbed since. Slightly cold cellaring may have helped. The cellar was almost constantly 52º. This wine showed deep color still with no real brickiness yet. It opened immediately and showed the difference in older Bordeauxs and more recent production. Much earthier wine than any of the others. Still lovely cbuttis and pencil shavings nose. Very elegant silky mouth feel. Finish still lingered with good acidity and fruit for a wine of 31 years. Some fading was noted after 20 minutes in the glbutt but all and all a great finish.

To top it off we had a surprise bottle of '90 Climens with the fruit dessert. Well hidden from the crowd. We were going to use a TBA. Tropical fruit nose, steely finish and great acidity still. Some honey but not as much as I would expect for this age.

A successful and enjoyable tasting for 14 people who got to enjoy some of the best of Bordeaux. This likely won't happen for us again. For one thing this was enormously expensive and required the generosity of many people. Our next challenge for next year will be a vertical of a California Cabernet that we have yet to determine. The lean is to Ridge Montebello as everyone seems to have a different bottle or 3 of of this unless anyone out there has another recommendation.