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Chateau Climens 1982 Sauternes

1/96. One of two bottles I got for a horrible price at a local auction ($60).
We tried this wine with Friday night dinner that consisted of fresh foie-gras, thinly-sliced fried zucchini, filet of swordfish oven-grilled in white wine and herbs, boiled potatoes, lemon cake.
COLOR: Impressive deep golden yellow. Viscous looking, with lots unusual of 'sediment' in the bottle. Small transparent crystal-like stuff floating around.
NOSE: Superb! Concentrated honeyed aroma with sourish overtones that give the impression of a fresh, well-balanced wine.
PALATE: Extremely rich of course. But not entirely satisfying. Two very distinct components to the taste. One is the unmistakable rich and complex sensation of the botrytis-effect. The second component is that of the wine itself, the juice of the grape. While the first component was everything one might wish for, the wine-taste itself was not top class. Instead of counter-balancing the heavy sweetness with refreshing fruitiness and/or acidity, the end of each sip was marked by a touch of bitterness.
LENGTH: Extremely long and lingering aftertaste that has to fight (and win) the bitter finish for the first few seconds.
TEXTURE & BALANCE: Viscous and enormously rich wine. The refreshing acidity, hinted by the nose is not carried over to the palate.
OVERALL: With very little experience in Sauternes, I was expecting a more breath-taking experience. Not that the wine is not a superb nectar, but it seems to me it is superb in spite of the winemaking and not because of it... BTW, it went well with all the dishes, including the bit pungent and awfully tasteful swordfish.
MARK: 17/20.aaaaaaaaBUY MORE? No.


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Jacob "Yak" Shaya.