Tasted at the property, the 1985 Pichon Lalande is fully matured on the feral, tertiary nose, and like the bottle I tasted a couple of years ago, this has recently become much more diffuse than exemplary showing during the 1990s and 2000s. The palate is fleshy and smooth like many wines of this vintage, but in recent years, the tannins have become and little edgier, the fruit degraded and turning quite mushroom-like and earthy on the finish. I would broach bottles of this over the next five years, because I feel that it is drying out. Tasted March 2016.

Fully mature, this wine shows some pink at the edge, a sweet nose of herb-tinged cherries and black currants intermixed with dusty notes and new oak. The wine is medium-bodied, elegant, very flattering, and perfumed. It does not have the weight, depth, or dimensions of the top vintages, but is quite seductive. Anticipated maturity: Now-2005. Last tasted, 5/02.