Powerful and dense to the core, the 1990 possesses superb density for a wine of its age. Despite its considerable depth, the 1990 remains light on its feet for such a big wine. I imagine the 1990 Latour will drink well for another thirty years. What a wine.
Gala Dinners 1 & 2: After having had two so-so bottles of 1990 Latour from my cellar, I had a great one in, of all places, Seoul, Korea. This beautiful bottle renewed my confidence in this wine, but it does appear to be fully mature, which is unusual for a 20-year old Latour.
The 1990 Latour, served from double magnum direct from the château, is a magnificent wine. It is a showstopping bouquet that explodes from the glass. Oodles of blackberry mixes with cedar and glycerin. This is Latour at its most aromatically decadent. Perhaps due to provenance and format, the aromatics are also the most youthful. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful poise. The graphite element is more pronounced in this larger format, fanning out gloriously toward the finish to complete one of the finest examples I have encountered of this wine. Tasted at the Académie du Vin dinner in Bordeaux. (Drink between 2024-2050)
Starting to develop a brown aged rim,open earthy, full tobacco and cedar wood cigar box aromas mixed with leather and dark dried fruits, plums, damsons and cherries, minerally and lean acidity, full palate Pauillac still young, but with elegant and silky tannins, great balance, will last 30+ years. Drink 2005-2040. Date tasted 7th July 09.
A superb wine, aging well, the 1990 Latour still seems deceptively youthful, with plenty of ripe mulberry and blackcurrant fruit aromas and a graceful evolution, with truffle, earth, and smoke notes. The texture is supple and warm, but it avoids the softness of some of the clarets from 1990. The tannins are still reasonably firm. Although the wine should continue to improve in the cellar for at least another 20 years, it is already at a nearly perfect point between youth and maturity. Drunk with friends in Atlanta.
The 1990 Latour is a First Growth intent on giving as much pleasure as 'vinously' possible. Undeniably, there is quite a bit of brettanomyces on the nose that renders this the most animally and feral of Château Latour wines in recent years and yet you cannot help but fall for its almost garish charms. Underneath lie scents of warm gravel, fennel, oregano and leather that are totally seductive. The palate translates the richness of the vintage although it has decayed, frayed at the seams a little in recent years. This is sumptuous Latour, a devil-may-care Latour, a 1990 that wears it heart on its sleeve, armed with a gorgeous truffle-tinged, almost animally finish that is not round but “spherical”. There are probably few Latour wines as enjoyable this, even if it is certainly not faultless. Tasted at the International Business & Wine Latour dinner at Ten Trinity.
This is one of the more perplexing Latours to evaluate. It has plenty of sweetness as well as a gorgeous, rich fruitiness, but it lacks the firmness one finds in more recent great vintages such as 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2008. There is plenty of sweet, ripe currant fruitiness, abundant glycerin, and full body, but I'm still waiting for that extra nuance of complexity to emerge. It's all there, but the wine still seems to be more monolithic than one would expect in a wine approaching 19 years of age. It is not the sure-fire winner I thought it was in its youth, but then again, I don't have any reason to doubt that more complexity will emerge. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2035.
This is a beauty, but not the awesome blockbuster I remembered. There is a roasted, earthy, hot year character with extremely low acidity, fleshy, seductive, opulently-textured flavors, and a full-bodied finish with considerable amounts of glycerin and tannin. The wine was sweet, accessible, and seductive on the attack, but it closed down in the mouth. Interestingly, when I previously tasted this wine (about six months ago) from a bottle in my cellar, I found it to be impenetrable, needing at least 6-10 years of further cellaring. Based on this example from the Chateau's cellar, it could be drunk now. In any event, it will last 25-30 years, but is it the immortal classic many observers, including myself, thought it was? Anticipated maturity: 2005-2030.
There is no doubting that the 1990 is a potential candidate for the wine of the vintage. It is remarkably youthful, with a deep purple color and full-bodied, powerful, massive richness, and everything is held together by high levels of tannin, which is sweet and ripe, making evaluation easy. The finish, which lasts for for 35-40 seconds, reveals layers of flavor as well as impressive purity. This backward 1990 requires another 7-10 years of cellaring. It is a wine for drinking between 2005-2035
