Louis Roederer 1990

Original disgorgement in 1995. The color has deepened to mid-gold and there’s a layer of super chalky minerals, opening to dried white flowers, orange marmalade, camellia and calendula, grilled nuts, honey, spiced gingerbread and nougat with toasted almonds. The palate has lime-marmalade and black-cherry flavors and a smooth, ripe-tannin finish. Long and silky. Drink now.

From an earlier era, before Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon took Roederer's winemaking in a somewhat more reductive direction, the 1990 Brut Vintage is a medium to full-bodied, rich and pillowy wine evocative of apricots, dried fruits, honeycomb, spices, caramel and toasted nuts. It's a delicious mature wine, still animated by a pretty pinpoint mousse, that's cut from more old-fashioned cloth.