Description
When to drink: 2019 to 2035
Parker: 98/100
Gabriel:
| Drinking maturity | drink up |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 18/20 |
| Already enjoyed four years after its birth in a crazy 18/20 point fruity phase. Then I had the feeling that it was maturing too quickly and experiencing an unexpected renaissance. Drank a bottle at the Château in 1993: open, immediately appealing bouquet, cedar and fine herbs, fully opened. A lot of pressure on the palate, well-balanced, powerful back flavour with currant sweetness and chocolate. A lavish magnum in 1996. One seriously wonders whether American oak was involved here? Then an Impériale bottle that I opened on New Year's Eve 1999: the bouquet is characterised by sandalwood-like sweetness, coconut and cocoa butter. A round Rubens Pauillac that is incredibly enjoyable. Beautifully sweet, but slender. 00: The fascination slowly fades. Normal bottles are tending towards the final stage of maturity and are now at 17/20 points. 03: Magnum: Strongly maturing wine red with an orange-brownish rim. Fat, sweet bouquet, cooked red plums, pralines, butter, caramel, really sexy. A bundle of dried fruit sweetness on the palate, sandalwood, gianduja, glazed mocha beans, juicy tannins and yet the slightly green peppery spice in the long, albeit flattening finish. Again from a magnum on a deer trunk, which proves that magnums are extremely mature and normal bottles still show a bold nose variant, but the palate is now getting thinner and thinner (17/20). And yet another magnum. This time at the Coburg in Vienna. The nose was again higher than the palate. (17/20). 13: Lightening garnet colour, with corresponding ripe tones. Dark malt on the nose and dark chocolates, liquorice notes, beautifully expansive. Juice, elegance, silk, finest tannins on the palate, really prances through the palate, perhaps a little wilted, but still a fantastic final maturity. (18/20). 13: In Zell am See: Medium garnet colour, brick-red rim. Druggy start, caramel, candy, nutty notes, butter, sandalwood, very erotic nose with a burst of Cabernet sweetness. A mild tannin orgy on the palate, only slightly inferior to the highly rated 1982, woody sweetness in the background (big, old Rioja), lots of chocolates in the bundled finish. A super bottle. 19/20! 13: Magnum. Lightening wine red colour, orange rim. Caramel, sandalwood and plums a subtle sweetness, as always showing a hint of capsin as Cabernet spice, black chocolate in the second attack. Juicy, very elegant on the palate, with an incredible drinking flow and a harmonious finish. I have been preaching here for years that you should definitely drink it up, and it is always so unbelievably beautiful to drink every time you taste it. | |
