1985 Château Chasse-Spleen
John Gilman 93+ The 1985 vintage of Chasse-Spleen is another one that I very happily offered in my wine merchant days and drank plenty of bottles in its youth, but it had been decades since I last owned a bottle to drink and enjoy. The wine has aged splendidly and is nicely into the sweet spot of its apogee today, but certainly shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. As I mentioned in the introduction, the 1985 vintage here was raised in sixty percent new oak, which I assume was simply a reflection of the need for the Madame Villars to buy additional casks to handle the large yield of 1985. In any case, the wine has aged splendidly and today offers up a deep and utterly refined bouquet of sweet dark berries, cassis, tobacco leaf, dark soil tones (that have a nice touch of salinity to them), cigar ash and a deft framing of gently toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and refined, with an excellent core of fruit, fine-grained, modest tannins, lovely balance and grip and a long, complex and vibrant finish. A beautiful vintage of Chasse-Spleen that is now at its apogee, but has decades of life still ahead of it. (Drink between 2025 - 2075)
Description
John Gilman 93+ The 1985 vintage of Chasse-Spleen is another one that I very happily offered in my wine merchant days and drank plenty of bottles in its youth, but it had been decades since I last owned a bottle to drink and enjoy. The wine has aged splendidly and is nicely into the sweet spot of its apogee today, but certainly shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. As I mentioned in the introduction, the 1985 vintage here was raised in sixty percent new oak, which I assume was simply a reflection of the need for the Madame Villars to buy additional casks to handle the large yield of 1985. In any case, the wine has aged splendidly and today offers up a deep and utterly refined bouquet of sweet dark berries, cassis, tobacco leaf, dark soil tones (that have a nice touch of salinity to them), cigar ash and a deft framing of gently toasty new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and refined, with an excellent core of fruit, fine-grained, modest tannins, lovely balance and grip and a long, complex and vibrant finish. A beautiful vintage of Chasse-Spleen that is now at its apogee, but has decades of life still ahead of it. (Drink between 2025 - 2075)
