I have no experience with Chateau Haut-Bages Liberal and although ‘86 is a well-regarded year, I’ve also noted many a scribe’s report for this vintage’s harshness of tannin, so I was a little surprised by this wine’s lithe personality and wonderful resolution. Fully mature but holding an extremely good deep ruby colour with only perceptible lightening in the very outer edge, followed by a solid nose of pencil lead, cedar and weedy blackcurrant with suggestions of freshly turned damp sod, dried herbs and a hint of black olive. The medium-bodied palate offers up a soft but expansive texture, more than enough plummy/curranty fruit underpinned by secondary earthy/herbaceous/cedary characters, low acidity and fully-resolved lacy tannins. The moderately long finish confirms the consistency of everything that has come before - a smooth, rounded wine drinking at the peak of its powers. Nothing startling, but sound, solid and eminently satisfactory. 88 points from me today, this wine should be drunk over the next 3-5 years.

Lovely medium ruby core with some lightening towards the edges. Enticing and still elemental varietal nose brimming with dark plums, pinot sap, sweet earth, a tweak of beetroot and some wonderfully-judged spicy, cinammon oak. A class act with fantastic integration of components and, seemingly, with substantial development in store. After a slightly shaking beginning the palate builds weight and structure as it sits in the glass to rival the wonderful bouquet. Strong elemental flavours of sappy plums, high quality new French oak, sprited acidity and firm tannins frame the nucleus of quite a stunning Pinot with a gorgeous but enigmatically long finish of pinot sap, bitter chocolate, sweet cherry and black plum. At least 5-10 years evolution for this wine to peak! This makes many an expensive French Burgundy look a trifle ordinary and I have no hesitation in awarding it 93 points. A revelation! Thanks to Sue Courtney for her astute guidance in putting me onto this beauty.

13.5 A/V and sealed with a traditional cork closure.

For those unaware about this domaine, this vineyard belonged to Bruno Clair’s mother, Genevieve Bartet. Until 1998, the wine was sold under the label Domain G. Bartet with Bruno controlling the cultivation and vinification since 1986. As from the 1999 vintage the wine has been marketed under the Domaine Bruno Clair label.

For those lovers of funky, feral Burgundy’s, this wine’s aromatics delivers in spades. Thankfully, allowing the wine to rest (i.e. no swirling), the damp earth, sous bois and barnyard dissipates to allow attractive aromas of sap, satsuma and well-hung game to provide a greater degree of interest and pleasure with suggestions of cardamon, smoke and malty oak following as top notes later. The palate appeals from the outset - typical for the vintage - revealing a tight personality, slightly green tinge to the plummy/cherry fruit, awash with bright acids and firm, resolute tannins, a decent departure and probably at least another decade of cellaring potential. 88 points today with a chance of a slightly higher score if the “cool” fruit can hold up while the acid and tannin soften and integrate. Very good indeed and verging on excellent, but no better on tonight’s performance. 13.5% A/V

Recent auction case purchase for $24.50 a bottle (after fees and charges including delivery to my door)

13.5% A/V Traditional cork closure

Medium ruby core with abundant brick red and some amber in the meniscus. Reticent, youthful bouquet of cedar, road tar, old lounge leather, licorice, red cherries, an undercurrent of blackberry and a suggestion of mint. The palate displays medium body, a tight, unresolved personality but with abundant potential for long-term improvement. Harbouring deepset leathery red and black fruit, cedary oak and a wealth of unresolved acidity and firm tannin, this is a wine that needs another 5 or 6 years of quiet rest before developing into something quite special to be enjoyed for a decade or more thereafter. Only 90 points from me today but with a bullet for something higher in good time. A Hunter “Classic” in the making.

Exceptional - 95 points - if, like me, you like your Cabernets with a broad spectrum of flavour (from leafy greens to savoury to almost sweet) and with umpteen nuances (such as a very fine Bordeaux), you would have gone gangbuster over this corker of a red. Served double-blind, I thought it possibly as old as mid-nineties but more like 2000-2002 and definitely a Cabernet, but a 1980!?!? You’ve got to be kidding me! Deep ruby and totally opaque, virtually no lightening at the edges, this wine had it all - otherworldly aromatics, lovely flavour profile and near-perfect structure. The magnificent supple tannin structure (but still holding up) being the only vaguest hint this wine had more age on it. Otherwise I suspect well-cellared bottles of this will last for another 20 years. An Australian classic! I was (and still am) absolutely stunned at the freshness and incredibly high standard of preservation of this wine. Keith Mugford (or whoever was responsible for making this at the time) should be held in awe for making something as good as this. Bravo!

Mature brick hue. Drunk over many hours tonight this wine offers a melange of deep-set, savoury, aged Cabernet aromas including sandalwood, weedy blackcurrants, aged tobacco leaf, old leather, leafy greens, damp earth, minerals (iron) with just a hint of miso and blood as a top note. As the wine passes through the mouth an initial burst of sweet curranty fruit is besieged by more of these complex savoury characters found in the bouquet. There’s extract a’plenty here on a medium frame with lashings of malty oak, very sedate fine-grained tannins, low acidity and an elegant, seductive finish of some considerable duration. Now fully mature, there is no reason to hold this terrific wine any longer. I’ve drunk more than a dozen and a half of these over many years and this particular bottle looks as good as anything I’ve tried previously. Drink now or over the next year or two. 92 points  13% A/V

Superb bright pale green gold colour with the only evidence of the 14.5 % alcohol shown in the thick weeping tears that form on the inside of the glass. Heavenly fruit-driven nose of ripe green pear, green melon, pink graprefruit, white peach, yellow nectarine with only minimal input from some exquisite mealy/spicy/charry French oak. The palate punches out an instant replay of what just transpired, with the pristine, glossy fruit doing most of the talking. Magnificently honed, this great Chardonnay displays a luscious, multilayered, mouthfilling, yet almost impossibly refined, texture, great line, terrific length and abundant reserves of weighty fruit that, at this stage, literally swamps the Rolls Royce oak and profoundly good juicy acidity sitting underneath. As much as I loved this, I’m prepared to go out on somewhat of a spindly limb and suggest this wine may not make particularly old bones. So if you’ve bought a quantity of this and because of its hefty price, it’s mighty difficult to suggest to “monitor closely and regularly”, so I’d recommend drinking what you’ve got over the next several years and avoid the bitter disappointments I’ve had in recent times with my last 1999’s (overtly oaky, disjointed, hot finish, dreadful) and one 2002 (premoxed and totally buggered - believe Gary Walsh at Winorama has had similar problems with more than one of this vintage). So no problems giving this beauty 95 points today but with a big question mark on where this might be in the mid- to long-term. Somehow I think the steeliness of structure in the 2001 LEAS (last tasted 04/07) still represents the best “keeper” vintage of what I’ve tried of this label over the last many years.