Bordeaux 1983: Tasting in 2000
One of my earliest introductions to Bordeaux, together with the 1981 vintage, the wines of this vintage have given plenty of claret-lovers considerable pleasure over the years. The tasting described here, one of the earliest to be written up for publication on this site, took place one cool November evening, when the wines were just seventeen years old. Ten wines were lined up, almost exclusively from Margaux – where the vintage was without doubt a huge success – and Pauillac, with just a lone representative from that more northerly commune, St Estèphe.
With such a small sampling of wines it is not possible to generalise about the vintage, especially as these were such a highly selected group. First growths and super-seconds dominated the wines representing Pauillac, and from St Estèphe we have another fabled estate, Château Montrose. From Margaux there were more humble offerings, from the fourth and fifth growth estates Château Prieuré-Lichine and Château du Tertre, and the ever-popular cru bourgeois estate, Château d’Angludet.
All three showed remarkably well, dare I suggest indicative of the quality – acknowledging that this sample does not constitute a comprehensive study – of the wines from Margaux this year. In fact, it was tastings such as this – as well as of the 1982 vintage – that awoke me to the combination of good value and quality offered by d’Angludet. Always a very traditional style, it never garners particularly great praise from critics who prefer something more fleshy and seductive, but with appropriate bottle age it is one of a number of very good properties at this level that provide good drinking at a good price. (7/11/00)
