The wine had a bit of and off-nose with a hint of fish in with the cedar and leather. Possibly corked? On the palate, the fruit is not nearly what other bottles of this wine have possessed. Tannins are soft but this is disappointing. 83.

Over time, the nose cleared a bit, and the wine, at last sip, merited an 85. Still a disappointment. At best, this was an off-bottle. I've had the wine several times before and it's been far better.

board_o,

i'm relatively confident in assuming that you bought this wine on relase some 17 years ago & lovingly cellared it up to this point. how do you handle the disappointment . when you get a result like this?

I've had this wine several times before and it's been far better. I assume this was a "bad" bottle and chalk it up to normal bottle variation. Hey, I've had lots worse experiences. I've been at dinners where some spectacularly anticipated wines were fed to the kitchen sink- '29 Lafite and "61 Latour. An '83 LLC doesn't seem so bad after those two. Perspective!

I had this at a restaurant in Germany three weeks ago and it showed beautifully, long, smooth, balanced, just hitting the drinking window plateau, where it will stay for a decade (at least that bottle ). Bottle variation is the price to pay for drinking fully mature wines. I've been lucky this time, and it was offered! Though a steal at 90€ off the list.