1986 Château Pape Clément
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Tasting notes
The 1986 Pape Clément is a vintage that I had never tasted previously and came in a half-bottle. Upon first opening, the aromatics display a bit of funk, but it improves over the course of an hour, gaining more clarity and freshness, offering attractive scents of mulberry, roasted chestnut, Cuban cigars and damp autumn leaves. The palate is not complex, and yet it is balanced. Slightly rustic compared to its peers in the Médoc, it has ample weight, and though it’s rough around the edges, it wears its heart on its sleeve. Decayed red fruit, quite savoury with maybe a touch of brettanomyces, this Pessac-Léognan is still trotting along nicely. That said, I would not leave it too much longer before broaching.
Critic scores
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
Tasted at the property, the 1986 Pape-Clement has a really quite gorgeous bouquet with bundles of black plum and cranberry aromas, plush and perfumed, wilted violets and rose petals seeming to spring up everywhere. The palate is medium-bodied with a slightly medicinal opening. This is supple in texture, perhaps not quite delivering the complexity of the aromatics, with tar and hickory tincturing the black fruit, good depth if not nuance on the generous, medicinal finish. Sure, it's old school Pessac-Leognan, but you would happily finish off a bottle and it has the guts and substance to give another 10-20 years of pleasure. Tasted July 2016.
Big, broad, lush, supple and tannic, this is a rich, complex, dramatic wine with layers of cedar, plum, and currant flavors that are sharply focused, elegant and subtle. Delicious to drink now if you can look past the soft tannins. It's a solid candidate for a decade's cellaring. Drink 1995 to 2003. James Suckling, Wine Spectator 1989
The 1986 is a remarkable wine, which is amazing given the fact that this vineyard was inundated during the severe rainstorms prior to the harvest. No doubt a very strict selection resulted in only the later-picked grapes going into the 1986. It has a stylish black currant-and-mineral-scented bouquet backed up nicely by spicy new oak. The wine is deep ruby/purple in color, medium bodied, with excellent ripeness and richness. It is not a blockbuster, but it does have a beautifully crafted, graceful texture, and a long, stylish finish. It is undoubtedly the finest wine produced at this beautiful estate in Pessac between 1961 and 1988. Anticipated maturity: Now-2008. Last tasted, 2/91. Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book, 3rd Edition # B1