Poujeaux 1985

Château Poujeaux 1985 is a Cabernet Sauvignon-based, Cru Bourgeois red wine from the Moulis-en-Médoc region of Bordeaux. Set upon the magnificent gravel slopes of Grand-Poujeaux, Château Poujeaux is one of the leading estates in the Moulis appellation of the Médoc, an area well-known for producing elegant wines from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This bottling is from the stand-out 1985 Bordeaux vintage and is in its peak drinking window. "I adored Poujeaux back in the decade of the 1980s, when it was one of the greatest steals to be found on the Left Bank, and the 1985 showed beautifully at our big tasting of the vintage here in New York in October. The bouquet is deep, complex and utterly classic for this fine Moulis property, wafting from the glass in a mix of cassis, cigar ash, incipient notes of chipotle peppers, a touch of coffee and a topnote of graphite. On the palate the wine is deep, fullish, complex and beautifully tangy, with a fine core of fruit, melting tannins and outstanding focus and grip on the very long and vibrant finish. I really love the backend energy of this wine, which is now at its apogee, but which still has decades of life ahead of it." John Gilman 2014