1982 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
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Epitomizing everything I regard as true greatness in wine, this bottle (purchased from Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa) of 1982 Château La Mission Haut-Brion is still deep ruby-hued, with no signs of bricking, and has this incredible sense of richness and intensity paired with off-the-charts complexity and elegance. Possessing a quintessential Pessac nose of blackcurrants, smoked earth, freshly sharpened cedar pencils, and sweet tobacco, this beauty hits the palate with a full-bodied ethereal style offering resolved tannins, a beautifully concentrated mouthfeel, a stacked mid-palate, and a distinct sense of salinity on the finish. If I had to pick a last bottle/desert island wine, this might be it.
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Full of signature La Mission silk and finesse, with a step towards the rich tertiary flavours of black truffle, tobacco leaf, incense and smoked earth. Seams of crushed raspberry fruits abound, with the turmeric and cumin spices of a warm vintage, just baked over campfire smoke. In this vertical it was tasted alongside the 1961 and 1989, and sits just a touch below them, just not quite delivering the fireworks of those other two exceptional vintages, but it's still a wonderful example of how 1982 continues to deliver. The last full year under the Woltner family, before they sold in November 1983.
One of the great wines of the vintage, and the last produced under the ownership of the Woltner family, the 1982 La Mission Haut-Brion remains remarkably youthful, exhibiting a saturated ruby-black hue. Unfurling in the glass with rich aromas of black fruits, cigar smoke, loamy soil, black truffle, peat and pencil shavings, it's full-bodied, broad and concentrated, with a deep core of fruit, ripe tannins and a long, expansive finish. Over the last decade, the wine has become increasingly seamless and elegant, without losing any of its vitality, and it is now clear, if it were ever in doubt, that this wine can stand alongside vintages such as 1961 and 1955 as one of the great La Mission Haut-Brions of the 20th century. Readers should note that the La Tour Haut-Brion of the same vintage performs at a very similar level of quality.