Then & Now - 1979 & 2009 Château d´Angludet

It has passed some time since the last then & now post. But I was yearning for some nice Bordeaux and found myself opening these bottles.
I have always had a soft spot for Angludet - 1985, 1989 and 1995 comes to mind as great drinking Bordeaux for many years.
Info here.

1979 Chateau d'Angludet

Right out of the bottle it seems a bit fragile but it soon opens up and become a gentle, mature old school Bordeaux which displays a nose full of red currants, tobacco, cold coffee, graphite and some fresh stables. A fine note of salted meat. Develops all night until the last drop. Very fine without being overly complex. 

The taste is mature, cool and a touch lean with notes of red and black currants, dried plums, old leather, coffee and autumn leaves. Very satisfying. A fine dried up sweetness. This would perfectly fit the Broadbent expression of a "luncheon Claret".

88p   (tasted 2014/06)
 

 

2009 Chateau Angludet

In the thirty year younger version they have dropped the d' in the name. But that's not the only modernization. If I gotten this blind I would have been hard pressed to put this in Bordeaux. A big, extracted, hot nose with notes of dark plums, black currant jam, dark chocolate, sweet licorice and vanilla oak aromas. Australia? South Africa? Chile? What! Bordeaux! Really? Ok, then...

The taste is - thankfully - much better. It is more restrained and the fruit doesn't appear so sweet and jammy. The black currants are only just ripe, the chocolate and vanilla just plays in the background and the young tannins takes a firm grip in the end of the finish. There is even a red currant acidity in the end. The taste is very good but the nose is too sweet, at least for now. Will it become a classic - in my taste - Bordeaux? Well, lets see if I can save a bottle for 25 years and find out...

82p   (tasted 2014/06)