TN: 1982 Chateau Beychevelle

Nice note! Beychevelle is considered to be an underperformer, but they can make lovely wines. Gives me faith to keep my 2000s for a decade or so...

RvG--- I agree, Beychevelle has really been an underperformer, but the grounds are beautiful! Occasionally they also make a nice wine; and lets hope your 2000 will be an exception year.

I also purchased this in futures for about $10. Boy do I miss those days when the dollar was strong and Bordeaux was affordable.

Opened a bottle of this last night to go with mushroom risotto. This was a very good combination as this wine now has a an earthiness to it that compliments the mushrooms. The color was garnet. Aroma still fragrant with a hint of floral. The fruit opened up after about an hour and the finish was quite fine. To me this was a classical, elegant, mature bordeaux -- not huge and powerful but silky and elegant. Even though this isn't a blockbuster wine, this is what I expect after waiting 25 years for the wine to bring everything together. As an aside, this was stored properly for most of its life and the cork extracted cleanly. (89pts)

I purchased a case at release and finished the last bottle in 2000. I think prime maturity was from 1992 to 1997 and then it started a gradual decline. Clearly Beycheville has the potential to make great wine as this was but they rarely pull it all together.