Carl Steefel

9.8

Informal gathering to drink some Bordeaux varietal bottles with steak.

1986 Cheval Blanc: This one showed suspect ullage, to the point where it had been hard to flip it. And in the end, it did turn out to be a controversial wine--was the orgasm 40 days, or was it 36 days? Hard to say... An extraordinary wine, classic in its own way, with fragrant dark flower and black cassis aromas wafting from the glass, and maybe more importantly for us, exploding in the mouth. Some of the more ordinary adjectives, like "smooth" and "balanced", are accurate enough, but obviously don't do this one justice. One could do a fluid dynamical description of the time evolution of this wine in the mouth, a broad attack that gave way in about 3 seconds to a sensation of acceleration and flaring across the entire breadth of the palate as the wine detonated, an oenological version of a jet... And then a persistent finish where the inner mouth perfume resonates as it fades slowly (or simply moved off to some parallel universe). — 12 years ago

James Parker Huston, CWE

Sommelier Charlie Palmer

10

Out of Magnum. This wine is all time. — 12 years ago

Mark Bright

Partner/Wine Director Saison Restaurant

9.9

This time out of magnum, definitely needs more ageing time in this format — 13 years ago

Jeff Smith

Owner, Rare Champagnes & Wines

9.7

Wow great wine barely aged out magnum beautiful wine — 12 years ago

Harrison Fong

9.2

Quite enjoyable. Heavy acid which thins it out a little. The nose is glorious with black plum and cassis. — 12 years ago

Nick Wolfe

9.7

This wine is drinking beautifully now. Spice, cherries, and black licorice on the nose. Lovely integration on the palate with balanced acidity, very fine tannins, and a silky texture. Red cherries and dry stone minerality round this out. Nicely long finish too. — 12 years ago

Jeffrey Lew

9.2

53 years in waiting for this group... What can I say. Started off much younger than the label would say.. Like the old grand dame of St Estephe.. Nice fruit, wonderful nose, and a pleasant finish to round out a great bottle of wine from a era gone by. Shared with friends like it should be. Looking forward to 2015 to do it all again. — 12 years ago

Austin Blackwell

9.4

This was poured through a Zazzol aerator and just spilled out Cassis, black olive, cigar box and vanilla/brown sugar from the glass. Should she well for another 8-10 years. Delicious! — 12 years ago

Nathaniel DiMaggio

9.7

Out of magnum. Holy crap!! — 12 years ago

Monroe Bryant

9.8

Ethereal. — 13 years ago