Chateau Latour 1990

WINE SPECTATOR: "This is one of my favorite wines ever. Full-bodied, with layers of silky fruit and masses of currant, mineral and berry character. Amazing. It's a wine with perfect structure, perfect strength. It's 1961 Latour in modern clothes. It's hard not to drink it now. '89/'90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal. Best after 2008."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "As this ages, it continues improving, filling out, softening and gaining in nuances. Now you find oceanic nuances interspersed with creme de cassis, cigar box, lead pencil, wet soil and leafy complexities. The wine is full- deep, long and regal, with a present tannic backbone and the structure for at least 2-3 more decades of aging."

FALSTAFF: "Kräftiges Rubingranat, orange Aufhellung. In der Nase tabakige Würze, feine Brombeer-Zwetschgen-Frucht, vielschichtig, mineralisch unterlegtes Bukett. Am Gaumen frisch, sehr ausgewogen und elegant, eine zart flüchtige Note, wirkt zunächst eher schlank, entwickelt im Mund dann immer mehr Substanz. Ein Wein, der noch viel Zeit brauchen wird, um sich komplett zu zeigen, ein echter Vin de Garde, tolle Extraktsüße."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "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."

WEINWISSER: "Aufhellend, mit ziegelrotem, recht transparentem Rand. Wildes Bouquet, Ledernoten, Moschus, Backpflaumen und Nuancen von Teer. Im Gaumen trockene Tannine, Korinthennoten, recht tiefgründig, Brazil-Tabak, massive Cabernet- Spuren, rauchiges Finale. Trotz der guten Worte einer der schwächsten Premiers in diesem Jahr."

DECANTER: "Still a young wine, with firm tannins that are less finely expressed than the Lafite at the same age and instead provide a more muscular presence in the glass, as is entirely within the Latour signature. The dominant flavours are cedar, tobacco, black cherry and cigar box, with black pepper spice on the close of play. Plenty of changes going on at Latour in 1990, with the estate sold the year before from the Pearson Group to Allied Lyons. This was the first year of the third wine Pauillac de Latour, further refining the selection of the main bottling. Drinking Window 2021 - 2036"

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Sweet start and a dry end. Long and reverberant with real meatiness in the middle. Transparent and fresh – lighter than many vintages of Ch Latour. Slightly inky finish."