1990 Margaux Bordeaux Blend - France - Bordeaux - Margaux - Red - First Growth

($550-$658) Full ruby-red. Wonderfully perfumed nose combines redcurrant, plum, mocha, minerals and rose petal. Plush, fat and rich, with great sweetness and class. This has utterly compelling mouthfilling richness. Finishes smooth and endless, with great breadth. This wine showed fabulous potential from barrel, but this is the first truly outstanding bottle I've had.

Bright ruby with a very pale rim. Quite focussed again (like the 2000 tasted alongside) – as though made slightly reductively. You have to search for the 1990 ripeness and gypsy abandon here. But it’s there, lurking under quite a tight, rigorous cloak of still-tannic fruit. The tannins are a little dry – 2003-like almost – this perhaps shows the superiority of the damper more northerly soils. Bright but a little bit jagged. Difficult to decide on an ideal drinking window for this wine when the tannins are so obvious. But after an hour the fruit rode over the tannins.  Less than half of total production was grand vin – 55 hl/ha overall. Paul Pontallier, now the longest-serving current director of a first growth, compared this to 1985. 12.5% £850

The 1990 Margaux continues to be the quintessential example of this chateau. In addition to being profoundly concentrated, its ethereal bouquet of sweet black fruits, cedar, spices, flowers, smoke, and vanilla is remarkably well-formed and intense. In the mouth, there is not a hard edge to this classic wine, which is super-concentrated, soft, silky-textured, and opulent. It displays an opaque ruby/purple color, a compelling bouquet, and exquisite layers of flavors that cascade over the palate without any notion of toughness or coarseness. The acidity is low, although sufficient enough to provide vibrancy and focus. This wine's significant tannin level is remarkably well-concealed by the wealth of fruit. Although still an infant in terms of development, this fabulous Margaux is already drinkable. There have been so many great vintages of Margaux under the Mentzelopoulos regime that it is almost inconceivable that the 1990 could outrank the 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1995, but, in my opinion, it possesses an extra-special dimension. While it is approachable, it will last for 25-30 years. Last tasted 11/96

Full-bodied, yet racy and refined, with blackberry and licorice character. Long. It keeps getting better and better. Hard not to drink now. In fact, I would, but it will age well for decades. '89/'90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal.