1982 - Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Pauillac

How does this wine just keep delivering? Yet again a slam dunk 100 points, with layers of tertiary tobacco leaf, bracken and undergrowth still balanced by firm tannins, hedgerow blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, campfire and incense. Colour still a firm ruby - you can tell you have a fully mature wine in your glass but the pleasure is entirely intact. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing owner at the time, having stepped up to take over her family estate in 1978. Yield 40hl/h, harvest 16-30 September.

Several years ago, I purchased a case of the 1982 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande from a frigid Alsatian cellar where it had lain undisturbed since release, and from these bottles, it continues to very much merit a three-digit score. One of the most flamboyant, sensual wines of the vintage, it offers up a sweet bouquet of blackcurrants and blackberries mingled with notions of orange rind, violets, licorice and pipe tobacco. Full-bodied, supple and enveloping, with melting tannins, ripe acids and a long, cedar-inflected finish, it continues to deliver magical drinking. Having drunk the 1982 six or seven times this year, however, I am forced to concede that bottles that show this level of vibrancy and flare aren't so easy to find, so now is a great time to start pulling corks in earnest. This may not prove to be the very longest-lived wine of the vintage, but its star certainly did burn bright!

The 1982 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande has a justifiably lofty reputation and this bottle is evidence that it has lost hardly any of its allure. Backward, almost surly on the nose at first, it opens gloriously with intense blackberry and blueberry fruit, pressed violet and background scents of a marshy estuary. Stunning delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with more sapidity than I recall, beautifully structured and so velvety smooth that you do not notice the depth of this Pauillac. Almost sensual on the finish, this continues to cruise at a high altitude. Tasted single blind at the 1982 dinner at Corus in London.

Gorgeous, mellow, sweet fruit. Still fresh with some raciness. Rich and glorious. Definitely not on the way out yet! (JR)