Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 2eme Cru Classe, Pauillac 1982

Another dazzling wine, the 1982 Pichon Lalande is utterly profound from the very first taste. In the glass, the 1982 is powerful and explosive, with seemingly endless layers of flavor that continue to unfurl over time. Vivid, intensely aromatic and seamless, the 1982 has enough pedigree and depth to drink well for at least several decades. What a wine!

Tasting blind, I guessed this was the Latour. Just an incredible, stunning wine that hit me right from the very first moment and held its grip with the most confident of touches. Very much holding its colour and integrity of its fruit, even at this ripe old age. Such intensity on the nose, with blueberry, blackcurrant and spicy mint, this is knock-your-socks-off great. The tannins are among the firmest of the line-up, suggesting many years ahead of it still. You feel the walls of this wine, the flesh of the grapes, the smile of its fruit.

I've been lucky enough to have had the 1982 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse De Lalande a half dozen times over the past few years and it continues to show magically. Tasted out of a magnum, it has a still lively plum/ruby hue as well as gorgeous Pauillac notes of blackcurrants, smoked earth, cedarwood, pencil lead, and forest floor. It's unquestionably fully mature and in that sweet spot where it has incredible aromatics, beautiful, sweet fruit, no hard edges, and a gorgeous finish. I don't see it falling off a cliff any time soon, yet there's no need to delay gratification either. This is a magical, heavenly Bordeaux I wish every reader could taste.

One of the monumental wines of the last century is the 1982 Pichon Lalande. Since bottling, it has flirted with perfection, and was a sprinter out of the gate, which gave rise to questions about how quickly it would begin its decline. However, at age 27, it retains all its glossy, rich, flamboyant cassis fruit, chocolaty, berry jam-like notes, and plenty of earthy, foresty flavors. This is a full-bodied, extravagantly rich Pichon Lalande seemingly devoid of acidity and tannin, but the wine is incredibly well-balanced and pure. It is an amazing effort!

The 1982 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has a justifiably lofty reputation and this bottle is evidence that it has lost hardly any of its allure. Backward, almost surly on the nose at first, it opens gloriously with intense blackberry and blueberry fruit, pressed violet and background scents of a marshy estuary. Stunning delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with more sapidity than I recall, beautifully structured and so velvety smooth that you do not notice the depth of this Pauillac. Almost sensual on the finish, this continues to cruise at a high altitude. Tasted single blind at the 1982 dinner at Corus in London.