Chateau Latour 1990

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.

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

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.

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.