The Auswine Forum

I thought I would take a punt on a wine at auction today, but I have no idea what I just bought.

CHATEAU POTENSAC, cru bourgeois, Medoc...1982

can anyone shed some light ?

Am I an impulse buyer without knowing it

Forgive me for sounding a little catty Gianna, but you really should do a search first before asking this.

Simply by putting "potensac" in the search bar you would have a small number of hits, two of which are the offlines where a number of us tried it in 2005.

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=2588
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=3719

That said and done, if you strike a good bottle you should really enjoy it - it's one of those entry level Bordeaux that outperforms its classification, and 1982 was probably the best of them to date. Keep in mind though it's 25 years from vintage now, so the chances of striking an excellent bottle aren't quite as good as they used to be. Good luck.

Cheers,
Ian

Hello Gianna,

Chateau Potensac is a solid and very reliable Medoc wine. It has recently been designated Crus Bourgeois Exceptionel in Bordeaux. Used to be a bit austere in its youth, taking 5-10 years to fully reveal itself. We had the 1985 about 2 years ago and it was a splendor. I would recommend having this one with a proper meal to give it some chance of expressing itself nicely.

Thanks Ian and Olivier

Oh yeah, forgot about that little search function at the top...

Cheers

I'm a fan...

Have a continuous vertical of Potensac dating from 1996.

The '82s are great, if you find a good bottle; better than the '83s I've found. How much did you pay for it, if you don't mind me asking?

$61 + comm

The 1982 Chateau Potensac was made by Michel Delon, the owner of Chateau Leoville Las Cases, a second growth Bordeaux, and as far as I know he still makes the wine. The vintage is an excellent one and if the wine was well stored it should be a very good drop.

Nayan, you are right about the 1983. I have opened a couple of 1983s, at 10 and 15 years of age and they seemed backward and tannic. I haven't opened another one since (hope springs eternal). The 1989, opened in 2003 to see how it was doing was very good and still had a long way to go, while the 1996 was okay for tasting (unless you like young tannic wines) but would need plenty of time in the cellar.

By the way, if memory serves me right, Robert Parker gave 89 points to the 1982, and 87 points to the 1983 calling it a sleeper. The 1989 Potensac got 87 points as well but is much finer than the 1983. In the long run points don't mean a thing.

And another thing. In 1993, at London's heathrow Airport, as I was walking to the departure gate I spotted the 1982 Potensac in the duty free shop selling for about 10 pounds. I paused. I already had about nine bottles of wine in my hand luggage and walking with a stoop so as to keep the wines close to the ground in case the strap broke. I walked on, paused again, looked over my shoulder longingly, and then continued on to the gate. Sigh! Surely I could have carried a tenth bottle.

Enjoy the wine,

Cheers...............Mahmoud.