This overachieving Pauillac Fifth Growth has produced quite charmimg and consistently high quality claret since the Chateau was acquired by the Borie family in 1978. I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy many vintages of G-P-L from the late seventies into the mid-eighties. The 1982 being totally spectacular on both occasions I’ve had the immense pleasure trying it. The 1979 will never be regarded by the international media as the finest wine the Borie’s have produced but on the many times I’ve been lucky to share a bottle with close wine-loving friends, we’ve never been disappointed.

Exhibits a gorgeous polished cloak consisting of a medium ruby centre with abundant red brick in the edges grading to amber and brown in the meniscus. The classical Pauillac bouquet reveals a melange of integrated, mature scents of lead pencil, cedar, damp earth, forest floor, red bing cherry, damson plum and spice box with top notes of tar, mineral and blood. With extended breathing the totality and breadth of aroma gains intensity and a higher qualitative rating - quite a surprise for its advancing years. In the mouth the wine, similarly, merits an exemplary rating. Fully developed and at the peak of its powers, the palate delivers a smooth and beautifully-honed personality. Of medium body, with fully resolved flavours that mimic the nose to a tee, there’s still enough cleansing acidity and resolute melting chalky tannin to counter the cool plummy/herb-tinged fruit to suggest another few years of pleasurable drinking could be afforded if provenance has been similar to that of this particular bottle. This Outstanding Grand-Puy-Lacoste finishes with great persistence and authority and a well-deserved rating of 90 points.

3/7/08  I left half the contents of the bottle in the fridge overnight and have just come back to it after dinner tonight. I cannot believe how good this wine is after it warmed up to room temperature. It has lost nothing on the nose and, if anything, a decidedly richer, sweeter palate. 92 points and a much longer drinking window than predicted last night.

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.