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Following on from our post about the 12th Wine dinner at the Savoy here are the tasting notes of David Roberts MW of the spectacular and rare Bordeaux 1985 wines:
Château Magdelaine
The first of the wines in this amazing tasting and what a lovely way to start. Mature brick red in colour, this has lovely sweet aromas of figs and plums. Beautiful purity and refinement, a wonderfully gracious wine with elegance and class.
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Strikingly youthful opaque colour. Deliciously sweet unctuous mature fruit cake aromas. This is ripe and flamboyant in the palate with a touch of herbal freshness. Masses of finesse with hints of mature berry fruits, this is very long and at its peak of drinking.
Château Cos d’Estournel
Sweet ripe plum fruit aromas, this wine shows good maturity with sensations of truffles and cocoa. Tremendously refined with an air of reserved power, it has fine St-Estèphe firmness and depth on the finish.
Château Cheval Blanc
A beautiful wine and one of the stars of the night. Deep rich and gamey nose, this has amazing level of intensity, with a fine balance of cabernet drive and elegant restraint. Very long with fine earthy mature fruit flavours.
Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Deep dense dark fruit colour, this has an appealing herbal aroma of truffles and mature dark fruits. In the mouth there is excellent richness and texture. Tremendous intensity with fine grainy tannins, lovely balance between its dry mid-palate and breadth of ripe fruit. Fine and classical
Château Haut-Brion
Rich mature farm yardy aromas. There is a lovely feeling of warmth and ripeness with a sensation of hot burning stones. This is a firm and structured wine, with hints of iodine and violets. A wine of huge class and very layered finish.
Château Margaux
One of the most sensational wines of the evening, this balances flamboyance and harmony. A truly graceful wine with layers of gentle sweetness and complexly mature gamey flavours. A real show stopper.
Château Mouton Rothschild
Strikingly youthful purple colour, with characteristics of liquorice and black plum fruits. A fine balance between herbaceous freshness and sweet fruit cake intensity. A full and long wine with great class and distinction.
Château Latour
For many people it was their wine of the night, with its deep baked fruit characters, hints of eucalyptus and upliftingly fresh minty finish. Whilst not hugely long, it is a very rewarding style
Château Lafite Rothschild
Quite a weighted and firm styled Lafite this has real Pauillac punch. Not necessarily the same sweetness of fruit as some of the other 85’s but has fine flavours of truffles and plum fruits on the finish.
Château Canon
A very fine mature St Emilion, brick red in colour. Sweet figgy pudding aroma’s it possess the natural substance that one often finds in the wines from this superb property, Stylish and beautifully rewarding.
Domaine de Chevalier
A beautiful example of the finely complex flavours that one so often finds in the great wines of Pessac. Dense dark flavours of liquorice and black fruits. This is a full and bold styled wine, balancing a weight of fruit with structured tannins. Long and grainy finish with oodles of class.
Château Haut-Bailly
Strikingly refined aromas of kirsch and sweet cherry fruits. Not necessarily the punch of Domaine de Chevalier, but finely balanced with a soft rewarding finish.