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Always a favourite of mine and this great estate has absolutely nailed the vintage yet again. Amazingly youthful almost crimson colour, layered aromas of cinnamon, freshly picked herbs, leather and ceps. A full and intense palate, with a subtle grainy tannic structure, with that hint of medicinal flavours I expect from La Mission. A warm rich style with an abundance of both flavour and complexity.
Always a favourite of mine and this great estate has absolutely nailed the vintage yet again. Amazingly youthful almost crimson colour, layered aromas of cinnamon, freshly picked herbs, leather and ceps. A full and intense palate, with a subtle grainy tannic structure, with that hint of medicinal flavours I expect from La Mission. A warm rich style with an abundance of both flavour and complexity.
The 1990 La Mission Haut Brion is a wine that just gives so much pleasure that it seems almost immoral to criticize. For sure, it is not in the same league as the awe-inspiring 1989, yet it has such an engaging, quintessential La Mission bouquet full of warm gravel, chestnut, morels and bay leaf scents that you just fall instantly under its charms. It seems to just grow in the glass. The palate is beautifully balanced with great depth but is still a little grainy in texture, and I noticed how it evolved almost a Musigny-like personality with time in the glass. I suggested back in 2014 that it might improve with continued bottle age. Perhaps now I believe that it has reached the top of its plateau, yet the substance and the persistence—the energy—of this Pessac-Léognan suggests that it will give 20 years of drinking pleasure. No, it's not as good as the 1989 La Mission Haut Brion, then again, few wines are. Tasted May 2017. 2017-2037
Surprisingly, the 1990 La Mission-Haut-Brion performed nearly as well as the 1989. Three of the tasters in the group of seven who participated in this blind tasting rated it higher than the 1989. I make this point because I think the 1990 is improving in the bottle, similar to the evolution of the 1990 Haut-Brion. The 1990 La Mission performed well-above my original score of 92. The wine is ostentatious, with a sweet, spicy, cedary, fruitcake, roasted black fruit-scented nose, admirable richness, a juicy, succulent, voluptuous texture, gobs of fruit and glycerin, low acidity, and a full-bodied, layered finish. This splendidly chewy, intense La Mission-Haut-Brion will come close to matching the quality of the legendary 1989. It will continue to drink well for another two decades. Drink 1997-2017
The 1990 La Mission Haut-Brion was always going to lie in the shadow of the previous vintage, but let's be clear: this is a magnificent, audacious follow-up. The nose might not be blessed with the Swiss-watch precision of the 1989, yet how can you possibly resist the heart-warming scents of roasted chestnuts and morels that suffuse the red berry fruit? The palate sports a slight gaminess and, as I noted in previous tasting notes, there is a Musigny-like personality toward the rounded, slightly earthy finish. Few La Missions have delivered such untrammeled drinkability. Tasted at the La Mission Haut Brion dinner at Amuse Bouche in Hong Kong.2021-2045
Stretching from the rather unglamorous southern suburbs of Bordeaux, for 50 km along the left bank of the river Garonne, lies Graves. Named for its gravelly soil, a relic of Ice Age glaciers, this is the birthplace of claret, despatched from the Middle Ages onwards from the nearby quayside to England in vast quantities. It can feel as though Bordeaux is just about red wines, but some sensational white wines are produced in this area from a blend of sauvignon blanc, Semillon and, occasionally, muscadelle grapes, often fermented and aged in barrel. In particular, Domaine de Chevalier is renowned for its superbly complex whites, which continue to develop in bottle over decades. A premium appellation, Pessac-Leognan, was created in 1987 for the most prestigious terroirs within Graves. These are soils with exceptional drainage, made up of gravel terraces built up in layers over many millennia, and consequently thrive in mediocre vintages but are less likely to perform well in hotter years. These wines were appraised and graded in their own classification system in 1953 and updated in 1959, but, like the 1855 classification system, this should be regarded with caution and the wines must absolutely be assessed on their own current merits.
