What a wine! It’s actually a little deeper in colour than all the preceding wines – until you reach the 1990. The sweet nose has truffles and subtle rose petals, slowly expanding to provide a wonderful panorama of notes. Again beautiful texture and volume in the mouth, there’s even still a bite of tannin in the finish. Once again a wine that builds and builds in the mouth – Bravo. On this showing as good as the 1978 even if the 78 has a little more aromatic intensity.
Already lost much of its youthful colour, just a trace of cherry still at the rim compliments a core of medium-plus ruby. Starts with a blast of fruit, becomes mute for a while, then starts to show its wares, complex fruit laced with spice notes that you really only get with La Tâche – almost ginger cake – just a trace of oak toast and smoky stems in the mix too. There’s an understated entry into this wine before a fabulous burst of fruit rushes you from the mid-palate into the finish. The soft tannins are buried and the acidity is just right. It needs an hour from opening to blossom, but this was a stellar performance for such a baby.
A wine that set the tone (hue) for the colour of the other wines – despite it’s relative youth, this wine was an old mahogany colour of medium-plus depth. On opening, this wine showed mushroom, forest-floor, inflections of soil, a deep peppery undertone and eventually a baked cherry note. Less round than the 2002 – the acidity sticks out a little. There is good length and weight, but the elements are somewhat disparate. This was actually the only wine that required extended air-time to show its potential. One hour later there was more harmony, less mushroom and a very strong ‘family’ resemblance to the wines that followed it. Don’t be disappointed if you have this wine – I wouldn’t be!
The deepest colour yet – looks quite old though with its mahogany colour and browning rim. The nose is a little gamey and still shows some mushroom – but this time much more subtle – together with high tones and jammy red fruit. Beautiful texture and weight in the mouth. This is the first wine with such volume. There is again a crescendo effect as you savour the wine, the finish being of bitter chocolate coated red fruits. Still a rasp to the tannins and lovely acidity. Very classy.
Almost as deep colour as the 1996, but perhaps with an extra hint of youth. On pouring the nose is a little diffuse, it needs time to develop into a wonderfully meaty mix of savoury and fruit driven aspects. Doesn’t have quite the volume in the mouth as the 1996 but rather than building it’s attack, it delivers a knockout punch right from the start – even seems slightly fresher than 1996. The tannins still have quite a rasp, but there’s the next 20 years-plus to wait for them to soften. Gorgeous intensity. I slightly prefer this to our bottle of 1996.
The nose is wider and almost as deep as the Richebourg, swirling initially, and surprisingly tightens things up – still it’s a deep, dark, well of fruit. I seem to be running out of superlatives… In every dimension this wine at least matches the Richebourg and in overall concentration seems its better. This is quite stunning (an over-used word but accurately used in this context), there’s a perceptible extra width. It’s not a fabulously spicy La Tâche but comes across as a complete wine – is it really possible to improve on this?
Once more medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is surprisingly subdued, powdery red fruits, but after 15 minutes still didn’t get going. On the palate reminiscent of how the Romanée Conti showed in London, understated but very pure. Despite wonderful depth, very reserved indeed. No La Tâche fireworks this time, but impeccably balanced and very long.
Together with a few 1997’s, this is one of the few wines you can really enjoy now that have been produced since 1995, despite it only being released a year ago. It was actually an hour before I started to taste this, I was just captivated by the scent. Medium ruby colour with a cherry red rm. The nose assaults the palate with an incredible green, spicy note – seems to have a lavender component – quite unlike the tasting just over a year ago. Slowly the ‘green-ness’ becomes more focused as cedar and amazingly becomes more intense. After 90 minutes there’s a whiff of smoke and finally white pepper, blood-orange and red berry-fruits – that’s closer to what I remember! The palate is impeccably balanced with intense fruit red and black berries. Very long. The palate can’t quite match the amazing intensity of the nose – but this is the real deal and a real honey.
A funny wine, in a large glass on the serving table this looked the lightest wine on display, whereas take a modest serving in a tasting glass and it looks altogether darker. The nose is La Tâche – dense, heavy laden branches of red cherries and raspberries, then a little cedar and blood-orange too. Then the nose closes down for a while only to return with tar and mint. Not as incredibly changing as the 2000 at the same stage last year, but like I said – it’s still La Tâche. In the mouth it’s much more explosive than the Richebourg with a super finish that’s carried on by a wave of perfect acidity. If anything, these are the grainiest tannins of all the wines – but then it’s all relative!
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