| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > St Julien |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Château Talbot
The 1982 Talbot had reached full maturity. It is a beautiful wine with licorice, black olive tapenade, black cherries and currants, as well as forest floor and camphor - a beautiful, full, sexy, lush wine that should continue to drink well for another 10-15 years.
The brilliant 1982 Talbot is a reference point for this estate, and in my experience, only the 1945 can match its quality. Offering up rich aromas of blackberries, smoked meats, loamy soil, licorice and black olives, it's full-bodied, broad and textural, with a thick, fleshy attack that segues into an ample, muscular mid-palate. Rich and savory, it's a compelling wine in its prime today. There's no reason to defer gratification.
Along with the 1986, the 1982 is one of the greatest Talbots ever made. Far more evolved than its stablemate, Gruaud Larose, it exhibits a dense garnet color to the rim along with a huge, sweet, exotic nose of charcoal, beef blood, licorice, herbs, and black fruits. A hint of figs suggests borderline overripeness, but the wine remains fleshy and full-bodied with sweet tannin and an expansive, heady mouthfeel. While fully mature, it should hold for another decade.
The beautiful 1982 Talbot is very much in the style of the 1986 aromatically, but in the mouth, it displays more sweetness, glycerin, and fatness as well as a more expansive mouthfeel. It was amazing how similar the 1982's bouquet was to the 1986's as the two vintages could not have been more different from a climatic perspective.
One of the great Talbots, the 1982 exhibits a dark garnet/purple color as well as spectacular aromatics consisting of melted licorice, briny olives, black currants, aged beef, new saddle leather, and cherry liqueur. Powerful and full-bodied, with spectacular concentration, it is not dissimilar from its sibling, the prodigious 1982 Gruaud-Larose.
This exotic effort possesses a level of "brett" that tasters weaned on sterile, new world wines will find objectionable. However, a touch of "brett" can add complexity, as it does with this 1982 Talbot. Anticipated maturity: now-2012.
