1990 vintage. Excellent fill and halfway saturated cork. Used a Durand but surmise a regular waiter's friend, wielded carefully, could have done the trick with the cork. Decanted and tasted after 30 mins, one hour and two hours. Some obvious sed but not troublesome or overtly noticeable. Original owner-château direct on original release. Super cold cellar because this was lagging noticeably behind other '90's and LB's. Bigger tannic structure (for a generally feminine-styled house) than anything save a Latour, Mouton, Ducru Left Bank property. Even more guts than Lynch-Bages or Pichon-Baron '90's currently stored above 55 or so degrees. Surprising but made sense. Light-medium body. Appropriate color. 3-4 years left in this stage unless larger format in play. Slight, fleeting burst of richness in the frontal palate and a tad brickish and then it just flowed on, without speed bumps. A little cocoa powder and cedar/tobacco. Suspect 750ml specimens not stored as cold/religiously will be showing more in the 9.0-9.1 range and farther down the backside of the bell curve. 10.26.24. — a month ago
Medium ruby with a ruby garnet rim . Quite spicy and aromatic cassis , blackberry and grafite touches . Quite a lot more mineral on the palate , tobacco , ripe blackberry and cassis , good density , touch of mint . Nice length and richness , rounded but still pretty grippy tannins , balanced acidity . Nice grafite and tobacco tinged length . This is beginning to drink quite well but will continue to improve over the next 10 years and last well a further 10. Successful for the vintage — 4 days ago
1989 - wow! Aged amazingly well, with fine tannins and nice acidity. Elegant. Mostly secondary notes of tobacco, eucalyptus, cinnamon spice, and a bit of vanilla. Some left over fruit in the background of the plum kind. Really great. — a day ago
Really excellent. From half bottle and was worried this would be too far gone. Certainly doesn’t need more time - but still quite together. Pretty minerally (in a nice St Julien way). Lighter bodied at this point but still with a nice lifting acid at the finish. Excellent pairing with a simple roast chicken with lemon. — 5 days ago
What a wild ride it was tasting this for the first hour. In the end it was a great wine, in balance and full of fruit. Lacked some magic. — a month ago
Ray Vanderhoff
Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (66%), Merlot (22%), Cabernet Franc (6.5%) and Petite Verdot (5.5%). Aromas of dark berry and plum fruit, menthol, graphite and violets. The palate is full of black berry/currant/plum/cherry fruit with hints of dark chocolate, dried herbs and minerals. Long and lingering finish with well integrated oak. Medium/plus bodied. Smooth tannins and quite a silky/creamy texture. Excellent balance of fruit and tertiary notes. Drinking well now, and should continue to improve over the next few years. Thank you for sharing, James W. — 7 days ago