Château Mouton-Rothschild--Vintage 1982 1 Magnum Slightly marked. Level into neck 10 Bottles Three slightly damaged capsules and slightly bin-soiled labels. Levels: eight top-shoulder and two upper-shoulder 3 Half-bottles Slightly bin-soiled labels. Levels base of neck Tasting Note: Magnificent, the higher than normal percentage (80 of Cabernet Sauvignon very noticeable. Exactly two dozen notes from 1985 and not a dud among them. At ten years of age, still opaque and youthful; a massively spicy nose and flavour, yet lots of flesh, my No 2 to Petrus by half a point. And on, and on. By 1996, at the tasting of '82s in Brussels, a mulberry ripe Cabernet nose; intense, dramatic, silky-leathery tannins. Unready. Excellent at Kaplan's '82 event, hefty, thick, very tannic. Still stylish at Hollywood Wine Society's Mouton tasting (1998). A somewhat less enthusiastic note at the Athenaeum House and Wine Committee dinner: 'touch of tar' on the nose 'stolid, impressive, but unexciting' (April 2000) but reprieved three days later though 'tarry' again added to its rich, ripe, Cabernet Sauvignon bouquet; 'better this evening than last Monday'. Open knit, 'coarser on finish' (than Lafite). Last noted at the La Réserve tasting of 1982 Pauillacs, April 2001 ****(*). M.B