Pape Clément 1986

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.