WineLovers Discussion Group

Last of four bottles purchased on release and consumed over the last four years, wherein in 2009 the wine was great but each bottle since has been successively weaker. It's initially tasty with reasonable mature fruit and minerality, but it slowly fades and the finish on the second glass turns dry and astringent. Drink up if you have them.

Took a peek, and saw that I drank my last one a few years ago. Still have one bottle of the 2000. May break into that soon just to be on the safe side.

Good planning. I thought we'd already drunk the last bottle--it was one of the earliest of the 98's I own to mature--so we'd made a point to drink them. This one slipped through the crack. Is it usually an early mature-er? I wouldn't think any '00 would be something we'd have to worry about yet.

I have not found Haut Batailley to be a long lived wine. It's not top tier in any respect.

Obviously, I'm unfamiliar. That's the only vintage of it I ever bought; I found it rather lightweight and haven't pursued others since. I actually bought it thinking I was getting Haut Bailly--no comparison!

I have made that same mistake.

'98 wasn't great for the Haut Médoc (very generally speaking, of course), but nice and ripe for the right bank, and, I've found, pretty good for Graves. For whatever tangential conncetion it is worth, when I tasted through the 2009 Pauillac/St-Julien wines at the 2010 April tasting in Bdx, Haut-Batailley's was quite impressive.

As regards Haut-Bailly, it is one of my moderately-priced go-to Pessac-Léognans. I opened a magnum of their 1988 a few months ago and it was very nice. Notable typicity too.

Best,

N

Noel Ermitano wrote:'98 wasn't great for the Haut Médoc (very generally speaking, of course), but nice and ripe for the right bank, and, I'ce found, pretty good for Graves. For whatever tangential conncetion it is worth, when I tasted through the 2009 Pauillac/St-Julien wines at the 2010 April tasting in Bdx, Haut-Batailley's was quite impressive.

As regards Haut-Bailly, it is one of my moderately-priced go-to Pessac-Léognans. I opened a magnum of their 1988 a few months ago and it was very nice. Notable typicity too.

Best,

N

I understand the generality of your statement and agree. I have/had a larger breadth of 98 than any other vintage of anything ever, however, because of an astonishing warehouse sale I attended where I bought good classed growths like Grand Puy Lacoste and Leoville Poyferre for $15 and $16 bucks and top tier wines like Conseillante, Mouton and LMHB for $40-60. It was shortly after 9/11, and the few Americans who weren't boycotting French wines were waiting for the 2000's, so a clever retailer bought a Bordeaux importer's entire inventory of 98s and 99s and staged a two-day sale in which he charged buyers a buck or two per bottle over his cost. It was literally a back-up-the-truck experience--I'd stack up as much wine as would fit in the trunk of my little Jag convertible, drive it home, unload, and go back. And I wasn't the only one--it was madness! Customers were grabbing stuff as it came off the truck and if you hesitated, someone else got it. I latched on to a salesman who knew more than I did and took anything he pointed at. The Haut Bailly has been one of my favorites, and the Haut Batailley the weakest although most of the right bank wines haven't held up as well as I'd have hoped. I need to cull the few righties that are left and put them in the drinking queue.

Jenise wrote:I understand the generality of your statement and agree. I have/had a larger breadth of 98 than any other vintage of anything ever,...

I have a fair bit of experience with '98 Bdx myself (though, unfortunately, not at the sale prices you indicated - but price is beside the point). What right bank '98s have you been not happy with lately? '98 HB, LMHB, Haut-Bailly, are superb. Pauillac, St-Julien, St-Estèphe have (generally) been ok but not interesting enough for me in view of other vintages available, coupled with my cutting down on my wine consumption since April 2010 due to inner ear issues. Before then, I used to drink a lot more and virtually everyday. Since then, I have been forced to more strictly adhere to the "drink less, but better" motto.

Best,

N

The 1982 is still drinking well and the 1989 is holding well, but I haven't tried many recent vintages, so they may indeed be more forward.

Noel Ermitano wrote:What right bank '98s have you been not happy with lately?
N

Clos L'Eglise, Quinault L'Enclos and one other whose name escapes me temporarily. Oh, Monbousquet.