1982 Durfort Vivens

The 1982 Durfort-Vivens is one of the few major wines of the vintage that I have never tasted. This is a bottle that I picked up in Burgundy with a good level and provenance. It's a lovely Margaux, old school in the positive sense of the phrase. A little tertiary at first, it takes a short decant to cohere with seductive pressed flower aromas intermixed with scents of old leather books, potpourri and a touch of game. The red fruit becomes more prominent with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied, certainly not one of the vintage's more fruit-driven examples, refined and maybe a little austere for some seeking flesh. Yet it contains exquisite balance, again, pretty earthy in style, sapid with a marine-tinged, harmonious finish. There is a gentle build that becomes more accentuated with time in the glass. Glorious. A cerebral Margaux.