1983 Chateau Cantemerle (Haut-Medoc)

I saw a few other domestic pinots sitting on the bench worthy of a try, but TOS yelled, “NOOOOOOO!” Calm down, dude. Have some Bordeaux. This bottle worried me a bit, since the fill seemed to be dropping rapidly (very low neck). No worries here. When first poured, we got a few blasts of ’83 vegetality, but that passed quickly as cassis took over. Really big cassis, creme de cassis level. Medium bodied, velvet texture, good but not remarkable finish. Miracle of miracles, it actually had flavors front to back and even some minerality and earthiness. We drained this bad boy in record time. Double Larry Curly in my book.

SY (4/01)