WTN: 1983 Chateau Talbot

From half.

I'm very torn on this. On the one hand, this has all the pieces to be great. It's shockingly youthful for a half-bottle-just some slight bricking at the rim. This is especially surprising because I picked it up off of Winebid and the cork was a dry, crumbly mess. But anyways, it looks 10-15 years younger than its age, and its still loaded with drying tannin. This is certainly ready to drink but may not have even reached peak yet- I can't imagine what a well-stored 750 would be like.

At first, I thought this was one of the better wines I've had in the past 12 months. The tannins are a little obstructive (way more tannic than a 75 Las Cases I had a couple of months ago), but otherwise this is absolutely redolent of loads of red fruit & a little residual cabernet curranty-ness. It also has that cliched "lead pencil" thing going on in spades, screaming of graphite and cedar when you sip it. And there are all sorts of interesting, difficult to describe savory notes in the background. It's really delicious

The problem is that about halfway through the glass, I had this strange epiphany where I realized the wine has a strange resemblance to tomato paste. I loved the wine before this, but for the last hour, every sip has been "tomato paste. tomato paste." I don't really like tomato paste.

So in sum: delicious wine, very true to its terroir, may bear a disconcerting resemblance to Hunt's tomato paste.

[David M. Bueker]

I would actually conjecture that the tomato element is a sign that the wine is not quite as youthful as you might think.

I would actually conjecture that the tomato element is a sign that the wine is not quite as youthful as you might think.

I dunno. On the one hand, I know what you mean, and I've definitely gotten tomato in older wines before (especially, perhaps strangely, older Cahors they used to sell at Chambers).

But this didn't really taste -like- tomato. More like the balance of sweet, savory, and acidity mimicked tomato paste. It was like one of those things where someone looks like someone else but the similarity stems not from any one feature, but from the general gestalt of the person.