by Dr. Bob Ouellette

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How does one begin to describe a vintage that 20 experienced tasters expressed themselves as the “best ever”? Coming on the heels of sampling the ‘97 Bordeaux and its super stars a few weeks ago, we launched into the ‘98 version with high expectations. Simply put, it was “no contest”. Another telltale sign would be to be among these tasters and notice that all the glasses were empty even after sampling the first eight wines. Let’s try to do them justice and put down in writing our thoughts.

The first four were nothing more than a tease for those to follow. All were “little wines”. Yet, even here we remembered the ‘97 group and saw an amazing improvement. All the wines were clearly enjoyable and typical of Bordeaux: good fruit following a pleasant ruby color; light body and appreciable balance led to a short but definite aftertaste. Definitely wines ready for enjoyable drinking.

Flight B with the introduction of the first growths started the tasters on a roller coaster ride with scores in the 90’s. Even with the second growth d’Armailhac, one was close to the magic 90 mark. Intense ruby robes led to toasty cabernet fruit of dark ripe cherries and hints of vanilla. On the palate, cedar, tobacco (more the pipe type as one taster described it), good acid in the forefront combining with soft tannins that gave the wine a smooth creamy feeling. Particularly with the Lafite and Margaux, all these were elevated to a higher notch.  What was to come with the next group of super 1^st growths? 

Wow, I have never seen scores like these so evenly expressed by 19 people. To put it modestly, they deserve even more than what we gave them. We all sat there and silently emptied our glasses and eventually filed out of the room pondering what the 2000 highly acclaimed vintage could offer more than what we had so immensely enjoyed. To say that these wines were stupendous is putting it mildly. What we said about the Lafite and Margaux can be elevated another notch as Emeril would say.

Certainly one could say that the cost of these wines put a dent in our budget, but in the end, no one disagreed that the ‘98 Bordeaux we tasted were over priced. They stood by themselves as champions of cabernet based wines. What we had here were wines that merited the rank of “Premier Grand Crus.” Can we equal this tasting with those to come in the following months? Time will tell, but until then we live with the memory of Bordeaux ‘98.

Wine