Looking through my cellar list for something to drink tonight I noticed I am the proud owner of three bottles of Lagrange 82 (St Julien, not the Pomerol), aquired as part of a mixed lot at auction a few (say five) years ago - bought quite cheaply I think because although 1982 is pretty fashionable Lagrange had a poor reputation until the mid-eighties. Getting a bottle out of the cellar, I did wonder whether it would turn out to be a bit weak, or past its booze-before date.

No worries though (as they say in the Antipodes) - this has a splendid, deep maturing wine colour, good nose and excellent, succulent, appealing mineral palate. What a star! Maybe I was stretching things a bit by giving it four stars, but it is pretty good - really a bit too much so to be drinking my way through on an average Friday night watching an epsiode of "Frost" that I expect I've seen before.

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