Chateau Leoville Las Cases 1986

DECANTER: "Michel Delon, then owner, believed this to be the greatest wine he ever made. It's not often the case that wines with this much expectation riding on them live up to the hype, but this one did. A stunning wine that, at 33 years old, still feels fresh, concentrated and with a long way left to go. The tannins have the characteristic Las Cases weight and definition to them, giving form and shape to the sweet berry fruit, but the overall impression is of welcoming, juicy pleasure. Harvested from 1 to 17 October. 4% Petit Verdot completes the blend."

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Karmingranat, zarter Ockerrand, Wasserrand. In der Nase attraktive, süße dunkle Beerenfrucht, ein Hauch von Zedernholz und Tabak, Nuancen von Brombeeren, reife Zwetschken, zarte Gewürzanklänge, dunkle Mineralität mit etwas Grafit. Sehr elegant und ausgewogen, durchaus kraftvoll, mit angenehmer Extraktsüße ausgestattet, perfekt eingebundene Tannine, feiner Schokonachhall, frischer, finessenreicher Körper, enormer Länge, mineralischer Nachhall, ist jetzt ganz oben angekommen. Sollte man auf diesem Trinkreife-Höhepunkt in vollen Zügen genießen."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "The 1986 Leoville-Las Cases is still so youthful in appearance after 30 years, with only a thin bricking on the rim giving away its age. The bouquet is magnificent: extraordinarily pure and delineated, bewitching black fruit laced with cedar and graphite, the latter lending an almost Pauillac-like personality. The palate is exactly as I have found the previous dozen or so bottles I have tasted: structured, delineated, intense, aristocratic and imperious. It is less formidable than say, ten years ago, so it has probably just stepped onto its drinking plateau. The acidity is perfectly judged lending freshness and tension, crucial to counterbalance those layers of spicy black fruit that fans out with cedar and graphite (again) towards the finish. You come away with the feeling of having consumed a wine with immense energy, yet with so much more to give over the next three decades, and knowing this property, perhaps even the three decades after that! I would agree with the late Michel Delon: the 1986 Léoville Las-Cases is the summit of the 1980s. Tasted September 2016."

WEINWISSER: "Dunkles Rubin-Granat, grosser Rand aussen. Kandisnoten, Süssholz, fermentierter Schwarztee, traumhafter Duft, schon fast erotisch, Kandis-Butter-Noten, füllig und weit ausladend. Im Gaumen saftig, fett, rund und schmeichelnd, ein Ausbund an Süsse, immer noch etwas Bourbon-Vanille im tabakigen, sehr langen Finale."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "One of the wines of the vintage, the wine is ready for drinking. That being said, regardless of how long you decant the wine. there is no avoiding the stern, hard nature of the vintage. Full-bodied, concentrated and with soaring aromatics, the wine offers up a chewy, intense, rough and ready blast of ripe cassis."

WINE SPECTATOR: "Firm and focused, with beautifully articulated currant, raspberry and nutmeg aromas and flavors; very supple for such a lean-textured Bordeaux. Approaching drinkability, but it can use until 2000 to soften.--Léoville Las Cases vertical."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Bright ruby. Iodine nose. Just a little bit dusty with a dry finish but with real density. This is, unusually, a 1986 that still has some developing to do."