Tasted semi-blind (I knew the wine but not the vintage). Lovely floral nose, sous bois, dried thyme and red fruit notes. Tasted next to the 1982 and was better, more balanced and fresh. Quite elegant and in a wonderful place now.
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Beautiful nose of tobacco and cocoa. Unfortunately the tobacco notes (almost like Copenhagen dip) overwhelm on the palate. Not spoiled, but lacking fruit or other complexity. Disappointing
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Decanted this bottle 3 hours before dinner. Still lots of fruit and freshness along with classic Pauillac notes and mature but still evident tannins. In a great place now and no rush to drink any remaining bottles over next 3-10 years.
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Perfect, mature claret. Initially seems to have held up better than the 1989 consumed as well. The 90 has a little fruit still, while the 89 is more leathery. Under vacuvin both were quite similar the next night. Good but not the most complex.
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Great bottle, very fresh! Pencil shavings and tobacco notes, lots of ripe fruit that shows the warmer vintage but with the restraint and austerity of Pauillac compared to the 78’ Trotanoy and 84’ Diamond Creek we drank side-by-side.
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Cork completely crumbled upon opening which had me worried, but I needn't have as this was quite beautiful. First glass was all cigar box, red currants, milk chocolate with a finish that lasted several minutes or more. Decanted the rest of the bottle and this became fuller bodied, tannic, and yet so elegant and wonderfully balanced. This is an old school, classic that still has plenty of time on its side, but which is drinking wonderfully now. Pure joy. (12.5% alcohol).
PnP. Incredible nose from the first pour, gaining intensity with additional time in the glass. Pungent aromas of smoke, tobacco, cassis, deli meats, cedar, and a slate note. The nose was replicated on the silky smooth palate. Impeccable balance and a long sweet cedar-infused finish. This wine punched well above its weight and was an absolute delight. I don't expect further improvement from extended cellaring but I also don't believe there is a great rush to drink either if this is a representative bottle. That said, I still plan to consume my remaining bottle within the next 3 years so as not to tempt fate. If decanting, I suggest using a narrow-bodied decanter solely to separate the abundance of fine sediment as it doesn't need much aeration. Congratulations if you own this!
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Décanté 90 minutes.Robe encore bien soutenue.Cette bouteille est vraiment magnifique:le bouquet,très intense,est d'une complexité magistrale:cèdre,menthol,tabac,cassis,galets mouillés,café, on ne se lasse pas de humer et de humer encore et dans la foulée la bouche est phénoménale.C'est goûteux,suave,d'une élégance sublissime et une longueur superbe (j'ai noté 14 caudalies !!!).Je pense que ce millésime surpasse le 82 ce qui n'est pas peu dire....Je m'attendais à un très bon niveau pais quand même pas à ce point là.Le meilleur rouge bu cette année...et c'est un 5ème...
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1990 Bordeaux plus X (Restaurant Brunnenstube, Beinstein): Tasted blind. Decanted for several hours. Clear, deep youthful ruby color. Beautiful BDX nose at its full peak. Complex and deep. On the palate not as perfect as the Haut-Brion, but also very elegant and young. Wonderful pressure and tension, great structure and tension. Great joy and a beautiful, fresh wine with a very long, lingering finish. Not even close to its peak. 95+
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Lovely Pauillac. Cedar tobacco pencil shavings and graphite. This will drink well for many years to come and should be interesting to see when it’s 40 years old. 93 plus more potential.
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A great classic of a claret is GPL 1990 of the great 90 vintage in Bordeaux. It is holding strong and offers up the whole umbrella of aged Pauillac Bordeaux goodies like saddle leather, library, graphite, gravel, earth and underbrush it also still has a tiny bit of exuberant fruit of blueberry (jam) burried underneath the tertiaries and always held up by pronounced minerality. Interestingly enough the fruit gets more pronounced after two hours of air so possibly I suggest not to be mislead from pnp and give well stored bottles a decant. It is very difficult to imagine this wine getting better and in fact I feel it as a bit better still 5 years back. While there is no hurry to drink it up I would say it’s on a long and gentle decline from its absolute apax. It is the best mature GPLI think slightly ahead of the 82.
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Cellartracker in the flesh with Pjaines (Paul), Porkandsalmon (Richard) and Vintomas (Tomas) (Various venues, London): Sweetly fruited with a little farmyard, sous bois, mushrooms, autumn leaves, a surprisingly perfumed top notes. Juicy, fleshy, dark hued fruits, mushrooms, tannins are talc textured and tight but, like the 96, are persistent and rather lovely. Nice and gets better with time - richer than the e.g. domaine de chevalier 1990 but very much a reflection of the vintage in my albeit limited experience. Yum.
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Lovely mature Bordeaux nose. Dark fruit, earthy forest floor, graphite. Palate deep, concentrated. Some dark fruit, blackberry etc but mostly tertiary driven; leafy forest floor, smokey, black olives. Dense with a long finish. Solid and still going strong but I felt this was just slightly losing some complexity and vibrancy compared to the greatest mature clarets I've had. Felt as if it developed and shows all of its layers of complexity but then this development prematurely hits a wall just before the climax... keen to try another bottle.
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Enjoyed at friends house wine night. Very fresh and in great condition. 2 hour decant. Just a great example of an aged claret. Gorgeous pale to medium garnet color. This one was in proper balance and not at all austere. Red currant, mushrooms, damp earth, unsmoked cigars.
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[Pizza Dinner at Ryan's] Mature Bordeaux, decanted for 2 hours. Very distinctive of Bordeaux, wet earth, mushrooms and forest floor. Red fruit still apparent, but not as lively and slightly muddled. Lacking intensity and vibrancy, but it is complex and nuanced. Great style for classical mature Bordeaux lovers. Drink now as it is in its peak.
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Great color, no light coming through. A elegant silky texture with fruits and mineral notes blending well. A great drinking window would expect it to hold for several years.
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PnP, followed over a few hours. This was a delight. Showing the warmth of the vintage, it had cranberry sauce, orange zest, brick baked fruit, and sweet blonde tobacco. Blind, I would have been faked out for a right banker.
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Delicious Claret in its prime. Great depth, soft tannin, excellent fruit with complexity to be expected in such a wine. It opened rapidly, 30-40 minutes but revealed much of its value the moment the cork was pulled. I have one more bottle I will hold for a while, if I can resist drinking it.
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Purchased last month for this dinner, perfect cork and fill into the neck. Double decanted 3 hours before serving blind. Dark red core, lighter at rim. Expressive nose of cassis, cedar, earth. Red fruits, medium to full body, good balance, medium finish. Typical Pauillac nose and palate, group guessed 1989 Pauillac. Up against some other 1990s, this finished some distance behind the 1990 Montrose which was WOTN, and the 1990 Leoville Las Cases. Drinking very well now, should go another decade. Excellent.
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I feel this is now matching the 1982 and on occasions bettering it. It is at the top of its game and although displaying tertiary notes, it retains a wonderful freshness. Dark berry fruits, old leather, and cedar dominate with hints of violet, and the nose is deeply aromatic and lingering. The tannin is fully resolved, and the finish pushes 40 seconds with excellent depth and balance. An hour in the decanter is perfectly sufficient. 96+
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Needs an hour to open up and blow off some funk but then…outstanding! Smooth but firm tannins, just enough deep red and dark fruits. Incredible smell of saddle leather and damp earth. In a perfect spot and enjoyable over 3 hours. I would say it is at its peak, but no rush to drink. Glad I have 3 more!
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The 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is a quite savory, classic aged Bordeaux that's all pencil and tobacco with just a whisper of red currant. Lithe, with intensity outsized to its weightless form, ripe acidity and mostly-resolved tannins.
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Powerful, full-bodied, rustic, but in a good way, the austerity in the currants with all the tobacco leaf, cigar box, green leafy, spicy herbs, and bright red, crisp fruits are everything you want in a classic Pauillac. About an hour of air will help the experience.
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Tous ceux qui ont mis moins de 95 étaient atteints de Covid-19 quand ils l'ont bu!!! Ce vin est une lumière perceptible par d'autres sens que celui de la Vue ! Il fait changer d'espace vectoriel... Tu remarques bien les marques du temps qu'il a traversé mais en même temps, il manifeste une telle vigueur que tu es tout le temps pris à contre-pied. C'est exceptionnel.
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Jason Goes Nuts & Guys Ride Again (Jason's, St. Paul, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Unknown treatment. Drank a glass plus over 3 hours plus. Geez, time flies; I've had the '90 GPL a number of times, but its been three years since the last bottle. This bottle might have benefited from some extra air, though we had a good bit of time to watch it evolve, which it did nicely. Dense, full bodied, blackberry, creme de cassis, intense nose. The palate shows lovely sweet black fruits, creme de cassis, blackberry compote, violets, graphite, rich and full bodied with layer upon layer here; velveteen texture with round plush tannins and a long finish. This will be another very long lived GPL. 94(+)pts.
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The Guys Ride Again (Jason and Mariellen's): Decanted 30 minutes. The wine is slightly austere. Surprisingly, there's the aroma of dark chocolate. Well-aged bordeaux but previous bottles were slightly better.
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The Return of Guys Night Out!: Another wine worthy of praise! This wine is in the front end of its prime IMO, i.e., it has quite a bit of life in front of it, while striking a balance between fruit and tertiary flavors. The wine is currently leaning to the fruit side of the spectrum, but has plenty tertiary flavors to accompany that fruit. This is why people age Bordeaux....to experience a wine that walks the tightrope between fruit and tertiary flavors that make you pause and think about what you just experienced!
On the nose, this wine shows red fruit, cigar and cedar. The palate is even better, with red, black and blue fruit, earth, tobacco and hints of sweet wood all lurking somewhere and taking turns creeping out to tantalize the taste buds. An excellent and profound wine, and worthy of 94+ to 95 points.
This is in its prime drinking window and for myself the best GPL drinking out performing the 1982. It is mature Bordeaux at its best. Blackcurrant, blackberry, plum and old leather dominate with hints of cedar and violet. It is showing secondary and tertiary notes and it deserves another point or two, but the finish, albeit pushing 60 seconds, becomes tannic and unbalanced at the very end. An hour of decanting is perfectly adequate.
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Amazingly fresh and nuanced wine. It is drinking at its apogee with a good few years left in the bottle. This is exactly how I like my Bordeaux with freshness and tertiary notes intermingling with fruit and tannins that are mostly resolved. This should last for good 10 years easily.
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Monumental wine. There’s an immense power to this coupled with some tertiary Bordeaux characteristics of cigar ash and tobacco. Ripe fruit for its time, some savouriness to the wine that I liked. I do love old school Bordeaux that have a certain rusticity and marginal ripeness character. They don’t quite make wines like this anymore.
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This wine was decanted af least two hours and was full of tertiary flavors — pencil lead, cedar, tar, light smoke. Amazing what 30 years can do for a wine. Fully mature and ready to drink. Cork was still solid and the color did not give away its age.
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PnP'ed. Ready from the get-go and at peak. Earth, mushroom, pencil-lead, tobacco, this was nicely balanced with freshness. Doubt it'll improve - could feel that the fruit is "plateau'ing". Regardless, a nice drink for now, and especially good with the meats.
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Maybe a bit high because I love mature GPL and this was a bottle from my Father's cellar. Right at is peak now. (I drank one in March and It was so good I bought another dozen - fingers crossed as to where thy have been! Drank with a roast chicken with a little anchovy butter under the breast and goodness did this wine sing - perfect, though its not going to improve much now. Bravo
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Bordal à Carouge (Ducru, Las Cases, Vega, Sassicaia, GPL...) (Chez Anne et Claude): Double aveugle (mon magnum, high fill). Ouvert 6 heures avant dégustation. Dégusté après les 6 premiers vins. Au nez arômes secondaires et tertiaires, fumée, pot-pourri, feuilles mortes, champignons, mousse. En bouche, équilibré, à point, concentré, tanins patinés, bonne longueur. Acheté en primeur et dernier représentant de ce millésime, ce magnum était à son apogée. 94-96 pour ceux qui aiment les vins un peu rustiques et à point.
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This example shows more red-fruited than I would have imagined with a potent redcurrant, wild raspberry nose, accented by lots of pencil. Followed for about 3 hours without much evolution, this shows a nice nose but never really kicks into high gear. Juicy, pencilly, black pepper palate.
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Last bottle of a great week of wine. This is fully mature; plenty of cedar, tobacco, moist earth, savory spice. Palate was well balanced, with enough black fruit and cassis showing through the minerality. This will drink well for at least another 3 years or so if well stored, it's great when Bordeauxs get to this place, there's nothing I enjoy more.
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No formal note. Classic bordeaux. Very mature at this stage and probably at the peak. At 30 years the colour has held up, but definitely showing some fatigue in the palate. Wonderful to try a legendary wine. From JY
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Appears pretty dark. A lot more menthol than in the first flight's wines - almost too prominent. Cassis and damp earth. Long blackcurrant (cough pastille) fruit finish. Really fresh but lacks a bit on the mid-palate, so (if this bottle is representative) unlikely to improve from here.
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Decanted for two hours and it really came into its own. Cassis, blueberry, black cherry and a really nice astringent quality to it. Graphite, tobacco and dried herbs. In a great place right now, and feels like it has longer to go still.
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First-growth quality Bordeaux. Beautiful, complex, balanced, complete with a long finish. Cassis and blueberry aromas with hints of herbs and spices; flavors composed of layer upon layer of evolving notes of black fruits (cassis, plum, blueberry,...), some unusual for Bordeaux red applies, and a bit of seeds and nuts. Very balanced and complete with well-developed front and mid palates and super long finish! It'd be a 100-point bottle to me had the aromas been more pronounced.
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A beautiful example of a classic Pauillac in its prime time drinking window. The cedar, tobacco leaf, cassis, blackberry, herb and earthy nose is compelling. Full-bodied, concentrated and fully developed, the tannins are soft and fully integrated, leaving you with fresh, roasted, ripe, round, red fruits and cigar wrapper in the long finish. Perfectly balanced between classic and refined, there is no reason to age this any longer. Splash decanted, this is completely ready to go.
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With better bottles this is now outperforming the excuisite 1982 and is a candidate for the best Paulliac of year. This is firmly in its drinking window, displaying secondary and tertiary notes, and is classic old school mature Bordeaux. The nose is blackberry, blackcurrant, plum, and old leather with hints of cedar and violet. The tannin is sweet but still robust with great depth and complexity on the palate. Likewise the finish is perfectly balanced and pushing 60 seconds. I am conflicted over aeration, leaning towards only an hour in an open decanter but it does need time in the glass to fully come alive.
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Has been a while since I last had a Bord... Decanted for a while & poured (blind), the ever familiar nose of a Bord came to mind immediately - lead, leather, leafy, blackberries, plus a slight tinge of funk! The funk wasn't exactly intrusive, but it also kinda detract (imo). Nicely mature, this had a silky, resolved texture but also had nice intensity of dark fruits that I doubt will fade anytime soon. All-in-all, this was just great with the lamb chops at Wakanui!
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Best bottle (Restaurant Holz und Feuer, Kirchheim, Germany): Glass: Gabriel Standard Clear, deep tawny color. Lovely, fully open classic Bordeaux nose with fine leather, tobacco and spices. On the palate very open and at its full peak. Fine red fruit, tobacco and leather. Medium+, perfectly integrated acidity, medium+ tanning. Very balanced, but also with an enormous pressure and tension. BDX at its full peak! Great! 95-96
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Another monumental showing of the 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste! The fill was into the neck and the cork was sound; opened an hour before service. Medium garnet with no bricking. An extroverted an outgoing bouquet, offering up notes of cassis, blackberry, sun baked stones, dried plums, with hints of black truffle and earth. Medium bodied, great depth and concentration, with a perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. A heavenly finish that lasts for over a minute. On this night, the '82 proved superior, but both are drinking perfectly at present.
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The bottle looked perfect, from the label to its level. The wine did not disappoint. Nose was lovely, I was constantly coming back to it. Average intensity but particularly pleasant and refined mix of fruit, leather, tobacco. The palate is both dense and thin with a fine-grained texture.It stretches and it extends impressively. Silky palate,, the fruit is alive and quite ripe but there is an impressive balance. No heat notes, the 12.5% alcohol surely helps. This is a ballerina of a wine.
La bouteille avait l'air parfaite, niveau comme étiquette. Le vin n'a pas déçu. On se plonge sans arrêt dans le nez, à l'intensité moyenne mais particulièrement agréable et raffiné, un mix de fruit, de cuir et de tabac. La bouche est à la fois fine et dense, ça s'étire et ça s'élonge de façon impressionnante. Bouche soyeuse, impressionnante d'équilibre, le fruit est vivant, bien mûr mais pas de sensation de chaleur, les 12.5% d'alcool seulement aident surement. C'est une ballerine ce vin.
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Have a few of these... pulled one and decanted. Had some roasted elements that were off-putting. I am thinking this bottle must have been heat damaged :(.
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Second bottle within a week. Always a treat and all-time classic claret favourite from yet another perfect bottle. Possibly a tiny bit less fruit then the bottle from earlier the week or it might have been the side by side with Guigal La Mouline 1999 and with a delicious Canard a la Presse. Both wines were great. For more notes on this see my previous TNs which absolutely hold. 96-
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Always a treat - a perfect bottle of GPL 1990! This from a perfect bottle with perfect fill, label and cork barely soaked delivered big time. Decanted for one hour in a wide decanter and savoured over the following hour this was in its sweet spot. 12.5% alcohol is what I love here. An immense difference to the 14% Canon 05 served just before. If someone does not like this wine with its aristocratic nose of leather, library, tobacco, cassis and its pure palate with perfectly balanced acidity then one does not like (classic left bank) Bordeaux. A gentlemen's wine and such a ballerina. Drink now-2030 but I do like where it is right now and has been for the last ~5 years. This will hold but it is difficult to imagine that it has not peaked. So I will be drinking my bottles unashamedly now and if need be repurchase.
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Decanted for about an hour before dinner and then drunk over 1-2 hours with main course. Some brown along edges but fruit still good and wine not at all thin or tired or played out. That said, never quite strutted and nose not really giving, even when done drinking and often the residual smell in the glass is better than any moment when actually drinking. Overall, a good but not great experience. Perhaps with 1/2 the bottle to myself, might have gotten there. All the correct elements were there and maybe just a little more time would have helped
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This bottle was fully mature, a gentle and elegant wine, harmonious, medium bodied, perfectly classical Pauillac, almost fully resolved tannins, with the generosity of a warm vintage. Tasting blind, I thought this was a 1985, and my generous host informed me that this bottle was more developed than others from his stock, which had been more vigorous. But I loved it all the same.
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Tobacco, wood, leather, cassis, pencil shaving - a beautiful mature great claret. I had scored this higher in the past as possibly this bottle showed a bit less of the core sweet 90 fruit than other bottles I scored even higher. Still a terrific showing yet again! GPL 90 is a classic.
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Stored in a cold cellar since release. Very high fill. Perfect condition. Lovely bouquet of cedar, lead pencil and black fruit. Deep coloured only hints of brown. Resolved tannins. Balance and length. Hard to judge whether it will gain complexity - could become a very special wine .Perfect Pauillac. Correctly stored will be fine at fifty
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The fill was into the neck and the cork was pristine; opened about 2 hours before service, but no decant. A deep garnet core with a hint of bricking a the rim. Notes of ripe plums, roasted fennel, earth, roasted fennel and black truffles. Medium bodied, with a silky texture, amazing balance, great concentration, and a long and classic finish.
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Firmly in its prime drinking window, this only needs a short time in the decanter. It is a wonderful mature Bordeaux. The nose is full of blackcurrant, cedar, and tobacco, with background hints of violet. The tannin has sweetened but the palate retains a steeliness. It is multi layered with great depth, and a finish nearing 60 seconds. This has moved forward in the last 6 months, and for myself, is now my favourite Grand Puy Lacoste, outperforming the outstanding 1982. This is at its absolute peak, and should stay here for another couple of decades.
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The fill was into the neck and the cork was pristine; opened, but not decanted, about an hour before service. A mature purple ruby core, turning to ruby at the rim. An expressive and complex bouquet, offering up notes of ripe plums, cedary cassis, cigar box, roasted fennel, and hints of iodine and black truffle. Medium bodied, with great lift and a velvety texture; you can almost taste the sunshine! Great concentration and depth, with a perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. A heavenly finish that lasts for over a minute. Once again, this wine exemplified everything that is beautiful about well stored mature Bordeaux, and in particular the 1990 vintage. An privilege to experience!
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When the first wine posted is a 1983 Chateau Margaux....: I could smell this all day, it has a rich savory sweet nose. Floral, a litle baking spice, nice red-fruit with cherry standing out. Of course, this is old Bordeaux, leather, funk, earth, cedar.
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Guys Night - Bordeaux '99 and Older/Napa '04 and Older (Joe's Place, Mpls, Mn): Very dark red color. Splash double decanted for 30 minutes. Drank 2 pours over 4 hours. This has a high toned nose, it actually tickles the nose hairs, splendid pencil lead, violets, funk, damp earth, black fruits of cassis and black raspberry. The palate is bigger and dense, full bodied with notable concentration, black cherry, cassis, still has a youthful feel for its age, yet clearly evolving nicely. This has the goods to age gracefully for another 25 years.
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A wonderful wine, drinking at its peak, but with a structure to stay here for many years. Flavours of blackcurrent and cedar with a hint of violet are prominent on the nose. The fruit with tobacco are the foreground flavours on the palate, with great depth and complexity. The tannin balances perfectly and the finish is long. I followed Jeff Leve's advice on the shorter decant and I found an hour in an open decanter just about right. 96+
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If you're looking for that blend of tobacco and cassis, with cedar, lead pencil, a bit of green pepper and crushed rocks, you came to the right place. Firm, full-bodied, concentrated and with a depth of flavor, the smoky cassis on the palate hits the spot. There is a touch of bitter chocolate on top of the cassis in the finish. This is drinking just great today. It was good out of the bottle, so do not over decant. 30 minutes of air is fine.
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What a treat to drink these two wines next to each other, just after a Batard Montrachet 2005 from Sauzet: Grand Puy Lacoste 1990 and the Palmer 1989. The Grand Puy Lacoste 1990 opens the party with a mouth filling, beautiful display of abundant, ripe fruit. That is a lot of superlatives and yes: It is as if you were dropped from space onto a heavenly meadow at its peak of of a somewhat hot if not just heavy summer. Clearly more masculine than the Palmer 1989 next to it, with the Lacoste having some seasoned-leather quality, the rich fruit all meshed together in a feast for the palate. More blatant ambition too; to please thru impact, compared to the more feminine, way more sophisticated Palmer. The Lacoste has a subtle bitterness, if not truffle, in the aftertaste that is typical for Pauillac and kind of a signature of its terroir. The best Grand Puy Lacoste I have tasted (I had this beauty more than a dozen times). Frankly the 1982 is no competition here, nor are the 2000 and definitely not the 2005 of which I am not a fan. Fully mature now and at its (long) peak. Loovely!
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The fill was into the neck and the cork was sound; opened, but not decanted, about an hour before service. A pretty purple ruby core, turning to ruby at the rim. A complex and expressive bouquet, proudly displaying notes of cedary cassis, ripe plums, aged tobacco, roasted fennel, hot stones, and hints of black truffle. Medium bodied, with a truly profound texture; pure velvet! Great concentration and depth of flavor, with perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. An ethereal finish that one could become lost in! Really this bottle explempfies everything that is beautiful about well stored mature Bordeaux, and in particular the 1990 vintage. A joy to experience!
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1990 Grand Puy Lacoste The nose is porn, leather, chocolate, forest fruit. Expressive, multi-layered and elegant. On the palate a virtuoso combination of intensity, complexity and finesse; crumbly, fine-grained tannins, very good concentration and aromatic depth, plums, cigar box, tobacco, dark fruits, acidity perfect, fine sweetness from the extract. Beautiful, delicate spiciness into the long finish. 96 Points
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Not the best showing of this wine. A bit tired and appearing quite a bit older than its actual age. On previous occasions this wine always surprises by its youthfulness, as recent tasting notes from other tasters below confirm. May the next bottle be better!
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Decanted for 45 mins. Nose has sous bois, green pepper, and plums. Palate has sweet dark fruit and sandalwood. It is very smooth and soft but it lacks complexity and power. Drinking at peak now. Lots of pleasure. Some tasters who had this wine side by side with the 90 Lynch Bages liked the gpl better. But I think the LB is a more complete and complex wine that still has upside with more aging.
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My oh my! This is wonderful! Decanted for 45 minutes. Color is younger than its 27 years of age. Cassis and cedar. Very enjoyable and almost sweet residual tannins. I like this even more than the 1995 or the 2000 Grand Puy Lacoste. Still has a lot of life in it.
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27 year old lady with a certain D. In a great phase now although there is no rush at all as there is plenty of fruit left so no worries from my side. Typical Pauillac when load of black currant, leather, tobacco/cigar and some earthy elements. Add a great length on the palate it is pretty much a great bottle of wine which reminds me that I have way too little Bordeaux in the cellar.
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Last tasted 18 months ago, this wine is now firmly in its prime drinking window, and for me now outperforming the 1982. Possessing deep aromas of blackcurrent and plum with a hint of violet, on the palate the tannin is beefy but perfectly balanced with the fruit. A lengthy finish completes the wine. Drinking at its prime, the wine has the structure to stay here for many years. A couple of hours in the decanter is still recommended. 96+
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Achetée en primeurs, il s'agissait de ma dernière bouteille....mais il me reste un magnum!! Into neck, bouchon impeccable. Nez sur les arômes de cassis, encre de Chine, etc En fait ma dernière note de dégustation s'applique mot pour mot :)
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We had a magnum of this wine, which held up beautifully! It took 1 to 2 hours to open up, but boy did it! Some damp earth, tobacco leaf, very slight Brett, but just enough to make it complex. Black cherry fruit throughout and tannins resolved. Just enough fruit remains. Very, Cabernet-Pauillac like. Brilliant expression why Pauillac is Ground Zero for Cabernet in France! Drinkable now, and I would not wait any longer.
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Starts slowly, but gets real with a little warm up. Cassis, earthy, leather. Deep, smooth, elegant, terrific attack and mouthfeel, great acids and length, wow. Still some tannins on backend, but fully in the zone.
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Superbe bouteille achetée en primeur! Into neck, bouchon humide sur 1/10 seulement. Pas de passage en carafe cette fois. Robe grenat foncé, peu de traces d'évolution. Nez sur des arômes de cassis, d'encre de chine, de mine de crayon, très réussi. En bouche, le vin est à son apogée, il fait feu de tout bois, avec une longueur incroyable. Tout est en place pour un excellent moment de plaisir. Pourquoi pas une note plus élevée? Le vin manque un peu de complexité (p. ex. vs LLC 90 bu il y a quelques semaines) et les tanins pourraient être encore plus fins. A boire sur une dizaine d'années.
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This wine was impressively young tasting, considering it was a half bottle, and compared to the 1990 Mouton tasted the night before. My last encounter with this wine was a little less than 10 years ago and it was a tannic and austere beast, powerful and not much fun to drink. It has definitely come around quite a bit from my half bottle and based on the past few Cellartracker reviews with very high scores.
At first, the nose was very full of red fruit, cassis, raspberry, and cherry, much like the 2005 I had recently. Perhaps this red fruit blast is a GPL trait? I liked it but was hoping for more complexity and secondary characteristics. Over a few hours, more black fruit notes of blackberry and black cherry emerged with hints of oak, cigar, earth, and pencil lead. Aside from the fruit, the wine was rather austere on the nose, and I'd like to see more of those other traits. If given more time, I feel like they would have emerged although when I tried it again in the morning it hadn't blossomed either and was beginning to tire out.
The palate was very fruity and intense. Lots of red fruit early on, with black fruit and some oak later. After a couple hours, the tannins began to show. It was certainly better with food and sipping on its own. This is still a big wine, and I can imagine even more so from a full bottle. It is certainly more Parker-styled than the 1990 Mouton. While I liked it, it didn't quite rise to the 95+ point level, though I could see the potential there, perhaps with more time to aerate or perhaps from another bottle. I'm interested to try this again soon and see if the bottle will be as superb as others have said.
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Super 1990s Bordeaux Tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): The most impressive wine of the evening, outperforming a number of first growths. It was the consensus wine of the night (tasted single blind). Showing much younger than its age. Very dark color. Amazing complexity on the nose, with pure black currant, pencil shavings, tobacco, barnyard, earth, and spice. Dense, layered, and beautifully balanced on the palate. A long finish. Acidity nicely balancing the fruit. Lots of years left with this wine, but it is clearly drinking at its peak.
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Just terrific, what a bargain. Cork was in very good shape with only about 1/4 inch of run. Some bricking but so what? The initial Bordeaux funk nose disappeared in a few minutes to reveal strong cedar notes, did not sense any tobacco as some of the other prior tasters did. Black fruit, fully resolved soft tannins and a wonderful finish that lasts a full minute. Wine is fully mature but will last another 5-10 years easy. Wish I had more. Look forward to tasting tomorrow night to see if it holds but having trouble putting it down right now!
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Absolutely loved this. Firing on all cylinders with a rich core of dark berried fruit, tobacco, graphite, herbs, and developed leathery and earthy notes. Classic Pauillac flavours conveyed with both power and finesse, with a palate presence that's intense yet elegant, and well structured with grainy tannin and bright acids beneath. Fantastic with roast chicken, but I could have been happy just sitting and smelling this half the evening.
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Consistent with my tasting last year. A truly great classic Pauillac from the incredible 1990 vintage. 5 hours decant, and it needs it. Colour is showing some noticeable bricking in the glass, the nose is classic with beautiful cedar wood, tobacco. The palate is just sublime - very meaty, cranberry, great acidity and soft tannins that will all ensure this wine will hold for a decade +, but surely it is at its best now already with decant. For some reason the wrong aromatics remind me a bit of Mouton 2005 at a possible future stage (alas I think the Mouton could turn out somewhat similar, I own the Mouton and would certainly not displeased if this were the case In ten years) which shows what class I would put this wine into. For me the best GPL to date. A tad better then 1982. Definitely better then 1995, 1996 and 2000. Most likely better then 2005 but I have hopes the latter might turn out similar-ish. Oh, and I have not tried 2009,10 or 15 yet, but then again that would be foolish as GPL really needs 10 years+++, ideal not to touch before 20th anniversary. To me this is the real deal and leaves nothing to be desired from a Bdx left bank love's perspective.
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Last bottle, decanted for 45 minutes. Lightening at the rim. Cedar and leather nose. Really long finish, definitely a food wine and not a cocktail wine. Really excellent. I have had several and this seems like it is fully mature. It will hold for a while but why not enjoy it now? Excellent.
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A wonderfully powerful wine with deep cassis and plum on the nose. It just explodes in the mouth with an overwhelming burst of deep dark fruit and earthy, but resolved tannins. The finish is amazing tapering for 30 + seconds with no residual harshness. This is a classic left banker full of big tannins just entering into full maturity. This did benefit from a 5 hour decant.
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Plummy red, bricking on the rim. In the nose, this was super elegant, fairly soft, it showed notes of milk coffee, oriental spices, leather, hibiscus, rose hip and barnyard, it was super fine and very complex. In the mouth, it was dominated by its immense structure that was near-perfectly balanced, the tannins were super-fine, the acidity fairly mild, adding to an overall suave mouthfeel. Dizzying complexity in the very long finish.
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2nd of 6, decanted an hour, perfect cork and level, previous bottle VF - medium dark garnet, some lightening; very attractive cassis driven bouquet, very GPL, secondaries developing nicely; medium bodied, long and persistent, silky, round tannins nicely integrated, quality fruit as ever, lovely, satisfying classy, slightly understated, and classic claret, just lacking multi layered nuance found in LLC and 1st growths, drink or hold! Just VF (18.5).
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Plummy rich fruit foward nose with a wet earth element. Dark sweet black fruits in a pure dense style with a nearly port like quality. Very good, although comes accoss almost over ripe. Reasonable stucture to support the fruit, although clearly fruit driven. Seems almost still to young and maybe touch over extracted. The fruit is yummy and packed. Could see this integrating even more with time. Fun to drink now, but still a baby.
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Found this orphaned toward the end of the night, and this quickly made it into my top 5 wines. Layered, long, concentrated, with waves of '90 fruit, but this is an old school Pauillac through and through with classic lead pencil, cassis and green tobacco. Only in early maturity, this is seamless and engaging. 94-95 pts.
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This is undoubtably a lovely bottle of wine but I do wonder if it was suffering from a little bottle-shock after a trek across London and then no significant decant to allow it to settle.
Fantastic nose albeit not as extravert as a bottle of La Conseillante '98 from the night before - classic Bordeaux tobacco and spices with a hint of red fruits. Beautifully balanced in the mouth with a long-length even if a little reticent to come out. My next bottle of this will be drunk at home after a significant decant.
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Requires some decanting but this is now at peak we believe. Having tried this twice before (2011 Papies 95, 2014 Papies 94) we are now of the view that this wine is at peak. The rich core of fruit that was there in 2011 is definitely mellowed out (there is still a good amount of fruit here though) and beyond this we believe the wine might start to dry out. Definitely our favorite GPL (at least for now) and a wine that will put a huge smile to any classic claret lover. 94 once again and drink now.
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Lots of power, still dark red, smells and tastes still as a young wine, and still very promising, one of the best bordeaux purchases from 1990 vintage. You can put it away in a cold cellar for at least another 10 years, not even close to being mature now, but can be drunk today. Points will rise if you save it at least a further five years
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Wine-Nona post-Bordeaux trip meeting (Messa Restaurant, Tel-Aviv): double decanting 2 hours prior to consuming dark opaque red-purple top quality tertiary fruity aromas, with lingering quality leather & tobacco notes, full bodied, soft integrated round tannins, mature red and black fruits flavours, perfect balance of fruit, tannins structure & complexity, excellent by all measures. Long seductive aftertaste. An outstanding wine!
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G-P-L Vertical (82',90',96',98',00',03',05') Evening: Second wine of the evening and overall my favorite. The nose came across as younger and more potent than the 82', with similar characteristics but showing more fruit and less cigar box/cedar. The palate was spectacular, lighting my mouth up cassis, cedar and earth. The 82' was by comparison on the feminine side while the 90' had a more masculine characteristic to it that kept going for a good 30 seconds after I cleared my palate. This has many years ahead of it, with the tannins still going strong and the acidity in the medium range. Great bottle of wine!
Opened three hours before. Should have been longer. This wine rejuvenates and opens itself in an incredible way. Full-bodied, at first some brett, but blowing off quickly. The whole platter of red (cassis!) and black fruits, tobacco, graphite, spices. More severe, St Estephe-like on the palate, though tannines are soft. Fresh and pure. Long finish. Will continue to drink wel for 15+ years.
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What a beautiful bottle of wine. Enjoyed alongside the GPL 2000 with rump steak, I could not take my hands off the 1990 and ignored the 2000 during the meal. Beautifully balanced, nice acidity and lovely gamey notes - this will last another 1-2 decades easily. Great stuff!
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3 hours of decant , warm and smooth nose with a classic paulliac mix of wood and dark freuits, medium to full bodied, lacking a little bit of power we would have expected of such a great reputation, but nonetheless a beautiful wine.
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Bouteille et bouchon en parfaite condition. High fill pour cette bouteille achetée en primeurs. Carafé durant 2 heures. Grenat foncé avec des reflets brique sur le disque. Superbe nez de cassis et d'encre de Chine, puis quelques arômes floraux, sous-bois, humus. En bouche, l'attaque est dense, la bouche est ample, avec une belle structure et de la matière. La finale est longue, un peu ternie par des tanins légèrement granuleux. A boire durant les 15 ans à venir.
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5 Decades of Grand Put Lacoste tasting with Richard Brazier. A tremendous 1990, full colour, great nose and balance, but some years away from maturity. Be patient!
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1990 Bordeaux Tasting (Kevin's (Minneapolis)): Underwhelming bottle or wine. Subtle nose of damp earth, tobacco, underbrush and spices. Palate added some blueberry notes but was a bit thin. Medium finish. Seeing my note two years earlier I have to believe this bottle has some flaws.
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Big Bordeaux VIII : 1990 (Kevin's house): Per the host, Slow-O for 1hr and decanted for 1hr 45 minutes. Drank a small glass over 1 hour. I could smell this all day, it has a rich savory sweet nose. Floral, a litle baking spice, nice red-fruit with cherry standing out. Of course, this is old Bordeaux, leather, funk, earth, cedar.
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Big Bordeaux VIII: 1990 Retrospective with Montrose, LMHB, PB, LP, and more (Rocknroller's (Kevin & Vicki's Place)): Very dark red-purple color, subtle clearish 2mm margin. Slow-O for 1hr and decanted for 1hr 45 minutes. Drank 1 glass over 3+ hours. The nose is reticent at first, wood spice, toast, dry leaves, which then evolves to show black currant, kirsch, graphite, and some earth. The palate is full bodied and dense, with lots of anise, cedar, kirsch, black cherry, cassis, spicy, wood, and fuller firmer tannins. This was pretty long and rich. It drinks quite young yet, and I don't believe it has reached peak.
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5 Decades of Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste, with Richard Brazier (Handford Wines, London): Great wine and gives a bit of an insight on how the 96 and 00 will evolve over time. A lot darker than expected in colour. Intense and open on the nose, complex mix. Rich. On the palate the tannins are still evident but round. Lots of life in this, very complex, long and with many layers. Very very good wine and one to look out for. 94
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Tobacco, Cuban cigar, forest floor, cassis and blackberries pop from the glass. Powerful, classic and refined, in a masculine sense. An hour of air added a lot to the wine. Really coming along nicely, this is now a bit better than th 1982.
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Takes some time to open up but this is classic Paulliac - insert any cliche you want here (cedar, black fruit, spices etc). Still very young a tightly wound up - I've never yet had a 1990 Bordeaux that has truly been ready. Beautiful clarity to the fruit. If you can bare to, then I'd hold them for longer. Otherwise, a long decant is recommended.
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Tough to assess... I almost don't want to put a score on this one. Tight, even after 4-5 hours of air and a double decant followed by a long open air decant. Kept checking in on this, so I know we didn't miss peak. What's poking through is good Pauillac; blackberry, currant fruit with allspice, oak, and earth. But it's shy. I gather from the community notes that this is either a very shy bottle or, less likely, so faintly corked that it was stripped without showing TCA aromas. Hm.
Nose: Fantastic plum, cassis, blackberry and spice. Pencil, leather graphite and lilac. This was 100% on point. Palate: deep and precise in the mouth with dense fruit and beautiful nuance. Finish: sweet blackberry, firm tannin, leather and classic pauillac notes.
Side by side with the 82 and the 90 showed better tonight. Both excellent but the 82 was wound tight and just not showing what this 90 could give.
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Guessed Pauillac, and a very good one. Very complete, beautiful, perfectly resolved wine for me. Guessed this was '82 but '90 doesn't shock me. This is batting above its pay grade. 94-95
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Leo's Blind Tasting Group - May '14 edition (Ben's (NYC)): A powerhouse of a Pauillac. A core of ripe red and dark fruit framed by tobacco and more savoury earthy and cedary notes, intense and concentrated on the palate with great length.
Pretty dark and youthful in the glass, glowing & bright. On the nose dark fruit notes, cassis, sweet, pure, graphite, cedar and spice box, impressive depth. Full bodied and rich, round tannins, complex with great length. Bright acidity on the finish which is contrasting nicely with the wealth of sweet fruit. Great future. 94-95+
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The surprise of the night, as the wine style was just between the Lynch Bages 1990 and Cos d’Estournel 1990, for a fraction of the price… this wine has not yet reached full pleasure maturity and is an incredible
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Decanted for an hour before it started to show well. Classic Pauillac aromatics and was a decent showing considering the company of 83 LLC, 09 Hommage and 99 Ponsot Clos de la Roche. Enjoyable to drink and the most approachable of all the wines that night.
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Dinner at Woodfire Grill (Buckhead, GA): Deep color with not a lot of bricking, could not tell a difference next to the '95 Cos; nose is full and deep blowing the elixir of Bordeaux, some nice green to go along with the red fruit and earth, chocolate, cigar, and luxurious feel to this, also it was highly drinkable; only bottle blind and I thought '95 Pichon Lalande so this bottle was incredibly youthful.
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Classic Pauillac. Youthful looking, cassis nose with nice intensity. Blackcurrant and currant flavour, clean and fresh but has a bit of GPL's typical hardness. Fine flavours, ripe tannins. Nice wine but didn't really rise from the glass. Scope for further improvement.
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Sloppy Seconds Mondo Tasting (Bin 75): Very dark almost to the rim; licorice, red fruit, full, obviously a good vintage but this was thinning out, gravel, good but not amazing.
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Fine looking bottle, but showing much more funk than expected, both before and after lots of air, largely reminiscent of urine-sodden wood shavings from a horse stall. Also showing solid structure and faint notes of sweet fruit mingled with green pepper late. Certainly a sub-par bottle, but I won't be seeking out another to sample at current prices. Not scored.
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HDH '90 vs '00 BDX Comparative Tasting (Chicago, IL - Spiaggia): Hard to be on the same table at Latour, but if you own it you'll be happy. Not as big or concentrated, but a fantastic core of pure red fruits, tobacco leaf and spice. Adds a little mint and flint on the nose. A step below Latour but really good. A-/A
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Great wine. Lots of tannin and fruit. Wonderful aroma. Worrisome was that the cork had nearly leaked through. If corks remain intact I believe the wine will be great until 2018 or so, but keep watch.
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Just a stunning bottle of wine. Double decanted and recorked, waited two hours to try and was still tight but approachable. Around hour four this wine was perfect, rich and complex with a two minute finish. This is why I love Bordeaux. Bravo
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Tobacco, cigar box, earth, cassis, blackberry and forest floor scents are all over the place. Concentrated, powerful, and stuffed with ripe, chewy cassis, this classic, Pauillac wine is still young and will continue getting better for the next few decades. The $20 price on release continues paying dividends.
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Her er det mye liv igjen, ut fra frukten skulle man tro dette var ung juice.
Textbook Pauillac, konsentrert og stor lengde. Utvikler seg bare positivt utover kvelden og åpner seg videre opp. Godt med grep og tanniner hele veien, syrlig undertone, balansert. Stor vin!
Drukket til andeconfit på Dr Kneipps.
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1982-1990-1996 Bordeaux evening (my home): Clearly one of the top Bordeaux ever tasted so far, including 1er GCC, but for a fraction of the price!!! Nobody expected that this will turn out to such a great wine! The aromas haunted all the 8 of us for many long minutes. Classic leather, perfect mature red and black fruits and an old cigarbox filled with quality tobacco. In the palate a perfect balance of fruit, tannins acid and a fantastic velvety mouthfeeling that made all guest around the table several times simply forget the food and just sitting there. What a big wine! If you can buy some more, buy it now!
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Wonderful delightful claret! Bottle in very good condition. When opened very tight with very slight brown tint. After an hour hints of a great wine. Went wonderfully with lamb chop, polenta, creamed spinach and dark chocolate for dessert! After two hours a flavorful bordeau with great fruit, tannins, terrior of the region. I think this one is good until at least 2018, but I greatly enjoyed this bottle today.
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Mogen fin rökig doft av svarta vinbär, svarta vinbärsblad, läder, multna löv, blyerts. Väldigt fin balans med fortfarande närvarande tanniner och fin syra. Fint mognat och väldigt bra
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Opened 8 hours in advance. Brett, earth, iron, iodine, medicine, tobacco, truffle, wild strawberries and more secondary tones in the wildly expressive nose. The concentrated palate offers fruits as well as some coarse tones. Elegant but in a bold way. Long lingering on. I love this wine that since first tried in 2002 keeps getting better.
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90 Grand Puy Lacoste expresses truffle, cassis, tobacco, cedar, leather and forest floor scents. Still young, this powerful, concentrated, masculine wine offers a big, beefy, juicy mouthful of ripe cabernet fruit. Some tannin remains that needs to be resolved. The wine finishes with cassis and a of hint green pepper which detracted from the otherwise sublime experience. I've had other bottles that did not display green notes that earned a higher score. Still, this is an outstanding example of a traditionally made Pauillac. 94 Pts
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This is getting very good now. A point or two off because it still has that slight GPL coarseness, but is a delightful drink. Double decanted at 6.30 and continues to come on at 9pm. Needs plenty of air. Tannins a bit green for my taste, and overpower the fruit a little, but I'm being picky - this is a very good glass of claret just approaching readiness. Give it lots of time in a decanter - 3 hours +. I tasted the last glass after 4 hours and this was as good as it is going to get. DO NOT POP AND POUR!
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Bordeaux 1990 plus some extra's (@ VadM): Beautiful and classical Bordeaux bouquet with cassis, lead pencil, smoke, cedar and luxurious oak as well as a pleasant touch of barnyard. On the palate mature as well with dissolved tannin, still some black fruits, good acidity and pleasant bitterness. A beautiful, elegant and classical Bordeaux. Completely ready now, but no real hurry; it will probably be on this level around 2016, but I don't think it will add in complexity.
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Killer Bordeaux Tasting (Kevin's House (Minneapolis)): My second favorite wine of the night. Black olives, tobacco, black olives, gravel, rapsberries and mushrooms. Showing secondary characters and should have a long life ahead. Very long and concentrated finish. Decanted 2 hours. This will improve over time. 95-97.
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Big Bordeaux III - Kickin' Ass & Takin' Names: Stunning Wines from 1986, 1990, 1996 + 2002 Cristal (Rocknroller's (Kevin's)): Very dark red color. Noticeably darker than the '90 Barton. Opened and checked, nose was really open, recorked for several hours prior to serving. Decanted for 20 minutes just prior to serving. Nose is open but evolves even further over 15 minutes in the glass. Intense nose of pencil shavings, funk, earth, cedar, black fruits of cassis, black raspberry, markedly floral. The palate is intense, full bodied, rich, cassis, blackberry, plum, loads of sweet tobacco, graphite, lots of earth, mineral. The very long finish shows some spice and round, integrated tannins. Stunning wine. Lots of life left. Considerably better than a very good bottle 6 months ago. My #3 and group #3 WOTN (2+2+2+2+1+1+1=11pts) 96+pts.
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A really lovely Bordeaux nose here with notes of roasted nuts, tar, cedar smoke and black fruits.On the palate it's quite balanced and delicious with a nice black fruit profile. Fairly structured for a '90 with some tannins remaining. Finishes with an elegant earthy note with good rather than great complexity. A really nice '90 but I rate it below many of its competitors.
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La Commanderie de Bordeaux à Vancouver - Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste Vertical (Bistro Pastis): Decanted 45min prior to serving. Medium red. The nose here rivaled the 82 for the nose of the night with beautiful Bordeaux funk and classic Pauillac notes of cassis, blackcurrants, pencil lead, cedar and after some time in the glass, hints of herbaceous notes. Soft and velvety on the palate with a weightier mouthfeel and firm structure. The fruit here is dense and pure with the perfect amount of ripeness. This is a really complete wine that’s offering a lot of pleasure right now but undoubtedly has many years of development ahead. When this wine hits its 30th birthday I would guess that it will be even better than the ‘82 was tonight. Outstanding. 93+
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Tasted this over dinner with a good friend of ours. No decant, a pop 'n pour, not that it mattered. The bouquet is gorgeous, loaded with graphite, cedar, dried black cherry, herbs, and cassis. Despite its age, there is a sense of life and vitality, perhaps an indication of superior quality? It's not often I get to taste Bordeaux that have two decades of experience to them, and perhaps that played into my views on this wine, but it's magnificent. I could taste so many flavors, ranging from cassis, dark dusty notes, dried herbs, tart black cherry, hints of cedar and smoke, and an outstanding mix of black plum and raspberry. The integration was outstanding and the tannic framework, though firm, belied a certain grace. Texture consisted of a single word for me: silk. An amazing wine, one of the best I've tried in the past year or so.
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Decanated for over an hour but still took 45 minutes in the glass to fully open. This is a complicated wonderful wine. Spices - nutmeg - on the huge nose. Lots of berries, cigar and earth in the mouth. Terrific long finish. DId not diminish at all over the three hours it took to consume.
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Bordeaux Tasting Highlights at Levain (Levain, Mpls): Dark red color with mild bricking and a 2mm clear meniscus. Very nice nose with lots of graphite, followed by tobacco, cassis that evolves to creme de cassis, earth, mushrooms. The palate has medium-full body, seems slightly thin on the mid palate, but has nice cassis and black cherry flavors and a medium plus finish. This appears mature now.
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Dinner party with friends. Dark setting, so no notes of rim or color intensity. Notes of blackberry, cassis, cedar, leather, tobacco, forest floor. The wine seemed just a bit closed this evening - might have been too cool. Good fruit concentration. A long and appreciable finish.
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Eric dinner (Eric's home): wonderful nose of leather, truffles, forest floor. some brett, in a nice way. reminds me of Montrose 90 but not as complex and long.
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Requires decanting and the wine is very young still. We read the note below abt how on decanting the room filled with wine aromas and thoguht of it too much, only to have the same experience while decanting it ourselves.Ha! Dark red in colour, like a mid 2000 merlot from right bank. Open beautiful nose, with more herby notes less earth and lots of red fruit. Some alchohol on the nose as the wine is on a youthfull phase still. Powerfull, vibrant, dense and layered.
This is a great wine and although a 94-95 for us at the moment giving it another 5yrs to mature this is an easy 97+. We loved it but still we couldnt but feel that we rushed it. Gladly we have some more.
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Truffles, tobacco, blackberry, cassis, earth, molasses and forest floor scents make up the complex perfume. Ful bodied and intense, this young wine is stuffed with ripe cassis, smoke and fresh black cherry. In select vintages, Grand Puy Lacoste produces stunning Bordeaux wine. 1990 is well worth seeking out.
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Great color, evolved with orange rims. Nose is also evolved with strong red fruits, smoke and cigarbox. Very smooth in the mouth, well balanced and not too alcoholic or acidic. Very nice wine and ready to drink. Only weakness, having tried a few days ago the 1990 Angelus, is that the GPL lacks a bit in concentration and length. Otherwise, a very nice and ready to drink Pauillac!
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Dark red, brick edge. Leather, cedar, black currant and raw meat, mineral and cough syrup top notes. Black berry, bell pepper. Finish is sweet and long and wonderfully balanced. Slightly spicy.
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I gave 96, I could have given 99-100, but i don´t dear concidering what to do with the rest of nice bottles downstairs. Clearly one of my top three bordeaux´s so far, with Cheval Blanc 1970 and Haut Brion 1982. But for a fraction of the price!! What more to expect of a bottle of wine? The aromas filled the room by the time of decanting, and was competing with the steak of moose in the saucer. Exclusive leather, perfect mature red and black fruits and an old cigarbox filled with Cohibas. In the mouth perfect balance of fruit, tannins acid and a fantastic velvety mouthfeeling that made all guest around the table several times simply forget the food and just sitting there. With a big happy smile on their faces. If you can buy some more, buy it all and drink it every sunday!
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90 Grand Puy Lacoste - Dark garnet. Beautiful Paulliac nose of lilies, cedar, cassis. Exceptional balance and depth. Lingering sweet finish. This wine has always showed very well.
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Deep beautiful cassis, wet bricks, graphite. Beautiful peak Pauillac. Deep, very focused and simultaneously braod on the palate. Great depth without heaviness. Drinking at a beautiful peak right now. Great stuff. A complete wine. 96 pts.
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Another stunning bottle. Classic claret drinking superbly at the moment. Probably won't get much better from here, but boy it doesn't need to. Garnet colored with hints of brown. After 30 mins in the decanter, the tannins were perfectly integrated.
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Truffles, soy, smoke, tobacco, dark plums and jammy berries with forest scents pop up the moment the cork leaves the bottle, gaining in intensity as the wine slams into the glass. Rich, full bodied and intense, with long powerful, spice and ripe berry, with hints of jammy plums finish. This will age for at least 2 more decades.
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Misc Bordeaux 1990 tasting - Martin: Powerful dark plum fruit in the nose with vanilla and freshly ground coffee. Good intensity. The dark plum fruit is very intense on the palate and the wine shows a great balance. Elegant but still powerful. Still very young showing only a little pencil shavings. Excellent!
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Bordeaux 1990 - 20 years later (Martins office): Dark center with a slightly browning hue. Classic cabernet nose with blackcurrant, pencil-shavings, cigar box and so on with the added notes of red berries, truffles and herbs. On the palate it is amazing with juicy, well-rounded blackcurrant and plum fruit, pick up on some vanilla sweetness, prunes and truffles on the mid palate and finish. Very intense and delicious, but it presents itself as elegant and majestic.
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Even better than the last bottle in Nov 2008. This one was decanted for about 3 hrs and while the profile was similar still lots of freshness yet with a beautiful smoothness you get from a good 20 yr wine. A pleasure, probably at the peak but would not surprise me if this drank great for more years to come.
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Rich, ripe, Cabernet Franc-like green pepper on the nose, fleshy and rich on the palate, with gorgeous sweet fruit balanced by grippy tannic structure. Many, many years of life ahead, needs time to develop complexity as it's very foursquare at the moment. Delicious, though.
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From magnum. Wonderful nose of spice, leather, farmyard and brett. Reminds me of Montrose 90. A little bit thin in the mouth but still a great drink. At its absolute peak.
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Served double blind. Garnet to dark garnet color in the glass, slightly cloudy looking. nose of florals, tobacco and black cherries. Flavors fo black berries and black cherries. Medium acidity, tannins and body. Drink or hold. My guess was its the 1990 Pontet Canet.
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Wow, is this wine something special. Drank for a special occasion, this wine didn't disappoint. Utterly harmonious, elegant and noble, the aromas were not as powerful as I had expected, event after 7 hours in the decanter and the glass, yet present were scents of cassis, tobacco and cedar. On the palate however, were lush, concentrated flavors of lead pencil, tobacco, cedar and dirt underpinned by pretty, fresh cassis fruit. The mid palate flavors gave way to intense flavors of cedar, bacon fat, jasmine, and most notably leather. Everything in this wine is in the right place: the wine is structured, fresh and flavorsome, and because of this balance of fruit, tannin and acidity it has the things it needs to mature, if not at least keep, for the next 15 years or more. Moreover, this wine is so expressive of its Pauillac roots, and seems to embody all that which claret lovers crave. Astounding!
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Two bottles drank recently, most recent one at last month's Hickory Wine Club tasting as part of an aged bdx flight. This wine is seriously good, in a great drinking window, very classic Pauillac and with enough fruit and tannins left for at least 5-10 more years of cellaring. Dark tawny color, bricking on edges, very smooth / balanced / complex with great lingering aftertaste. Both recently consumed bottles decanted 2-4 hours and this wine still needs it. Heavy initial barnyard funk blew off quickly, rich nose of sweet dark cherry, tobacco and hint of hay, primary flavors of still plenty of dark fruit, burnt oak, cassis, tobacco box, terroir and later on palate notes of leather and tar developed. Highly recommend this wine if you can find it, obviously much too expensive to be any kind of a reasonable QPR but this is one of those wines in it's current drinking window that goes to show really how good an aged bdx can be and what all the fuss is about.
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Really pretty nose of cassis, crushed berries and some leather/cigar type aromas. Really nice fruit on the palate with wonderful balance and a long finish. Still plenty of structure, but drinking nicely right now.
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At Frits house, tasted blind, opened 6 hours before tasting. Colour brownish on the rim. Superb wine full of layers with fruit, cherries, currents, tobacco, pencil lead and tobacco. Elegant but in a 'bold' way. Well balanced. The nose is very powerful, sweet and intense. Many layers of ripe red fruit. Great classic Pauillac!
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This wine is right in its wheelhouse and is really humming. Can perhaps keep another 10 years, but I don't see it getting any better than its current showing. Classis bordeaux aromas and pure vibrant fruit. A little lacking on the finish in terms of quality and length, like that of its competition tonight in the '86 Margaux, but just pickiung at nits here.
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Half Bottle Offline- lightening around the rim, a touch of fruit left and then mainly eucalyptus on the nose. in the mouth a well balanced dry red with a touch of leathery wood to it. med long. good example of 15 year old claret from half
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judgment of chicago-California Cabs vs Bordeaux (Chicago IL, Ward's): nose: much more powerful then the earlier bottle. Good depth and well layered tones of pencil lead, leather, dark red cherries, black currants, and some sour red fruits. Very pungent and holds some real good balance to go with the power behind it
taste: excellent full body with good tannins and well balanced tones of pencil lead, leather, dark red cherries, sour red fruits and a bit of tobacco
overall: miles better then the bottle that was in the blind line up. This performed great right out of the box and it would've been nice to get more of a shot at it as it just really came to play
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taste: medium feel that comes off as a bit hollow. Good tones of roasted herbs, black currants, red cherries and cedar, but there is a lacking that detracts a bit on this
overall: really nice nose, but it isn't followed through on the palate. Definitely disappointing when revealed
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Big, big nose of lead pencil, lilies, tobacco, cherries and garigue. So smooth, balanced, rich on palate with long, long finish. I wish I had more, as it has a lot of life left.
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Wine of the night. Decanted for 2 hours. Typical Pauillac nose of lead pencil and lilies. Some spice and tobacco. Nice weight on the palate. Rich, very well balanced with integrated tannins. Long on the finish
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Served with Prime rib roast on the green egg. This bottle did not disappoint. A quick 45 min decant as it had to be put into service as an add on. Strong dark fruit aromatics: Black cherry, plum and cedar were all here as well as garigue,tobacco and dry leafs dusty touch. It's all framed very nicely with good balance and a nice structure to the lingering finish. Kept getting darker and more complex as we drank it until it was all gone.....
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Casual Dinner at Le Titi -for an out of towner (Le titi de Paris): This is one of those wines that just screams classic Bordeaux. Unfortunately this one didn’t scream great Bordeaux. Typical Pauillac profile but was just a bit thin. Perhaps this was just an off –bottle as it was awkward.
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taste: at first this was a bit thin, but it put on more weight after an hour or so(this had been decanted for an hour before dinner) with sweet and rich backdrop providing tones of red currants, black cherries, sweet spice box notes, pencil shavings, and bits of cedar. Beautiful balance and medium feel on the palate with a youthful verve to it
overall: A classic GPL and showing off the 90 vintage very well. Great richness with a sweet depth to it. This is one that needed the air to strut its stuff and show off why its such a big boy. There is still a youthfulness to it and its very pungent. Tannins are starting to resolve and it posseses a long black cherry finish
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Steaks and Bordeaux on a Saturday night (Seattle, WA): A nightcap as dinner wound down. A strong dose of leather and Brett, nice tobacco, ripe fruit. This bottle was more dominated by Brett than I recall from past examples, but as it aired the fruit became more prominent. Just downright delicious Bordeaux from a very ripe vintage.
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I don't care how cheap it used to be. Those days are gone and even at today's prices, for a wine of this quality, it's worth the bucks. To me, when you get down to it, that is the best descriptor you can read. Would you buy more? I would. The rich, ripe, beautiful cassis laden wine is incredibly concentrated. Big, and broad shouldered, this is very well balanced and while not yet fully mature, can be enjoyed today. If you have only a few bottles, you can wait. It's not going anywhere. In fact, I expect it will drink well for at least another 25-30 years if well stored.
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Big Dinner with some Big Wines (Little Giant): I sort of felt that this got lost in the shuffle a bit, but I do love this wine. It's classic 1990 Pauillac with a gorgeous, velvety mouthfeel and luscious, sweet, intense black fruit that is nicely layered. It showed a little brett and since pours were real small it didn't flash its brilliance right away. With patience it showed great elegance and power, although this isn't the best bottle I've had. This is wide open and ready to roll.
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Exceptional nose of plum and raspberry, rose petal, hot rocks, old saddle leather and a touch of horse stable. Excellent weight on the smooth palate with just a kiss of tannin to give texture. Delicious flavors of dark fruits, licorice and a chalky earth note. Superb and at peak for me.
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This bottle was very good but not great like a bottle I had last week. It showed somewhat austere with some pencil shavings and earth on the nose and tighter, leaner fruit and somewhat dry tannins on the finish. It reminded me of a St. Estephe. A recent bottle from the same case was rich ripe and dense behaving more like a Pomerol.
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Sweet 16 Party for our Bordeaux (Triomphe): Here is a classic wine, combining power and finesse, both reaching for the sky with its explosive, opulent fruit and rooted in the earth with its classic nuances of Pauillac. It possesses a gorgeous, velvety mouthfeel and luscious, jammy black fruit that is both intense and layered. I can't put it better than Jeff who exclaimed that this was "everything 1990 for me."
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I've had this wine twice in the last three years, and both times it has seemed incredibly closed and hard, more like a wine from the 50's than the 90's. I've got two left, and don't plan on opening another until at least after 2010.
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The clear surprise of the night, easily holding is own with the big boys and knocking Latour off it perch in this flight side by side. Tar and extracted flavors of cedar and leather…fabulous nose, exactly what you think a great Bordeaux nose should be. Very long with outstanding palate persistence and lift that really filled the mouth.
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Dinner at Mise en Place with Jeff, Penn and Jim P. Extremely seductive wine. Loads of smoke and black fruits. Very round in the mouth with enough tannic structure to last a lot longer. I actually would put this away for a few more years as I think there is much more to come from this wine.
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Mmm, this is a fantastic wine that I have enjoyed a few times. This bottle took about 4 hours to come around and seemed a bit closed at first, but eventually it yielded ripe, roasted plums, a whiff of tobacco, smoke, cedar, roasted nuts, dusty minerals and huge volumes of roasted coffee beans. The palate was fairly approachable throughout and continued to gain weight the longer the wine was open. Initially leathery, this was dripping in minerals, sweet yet elegant black fruit, and more roasted notes. The finish shows loads of still young but sweet tannins with a hint of black cherry. Mmm, this bottle in particular has (well, had) a long time ahead of it.
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The Bigfoot of big wines - leaving big tracks for followers of the grape - big fruit, big fat front, great pile of rotting sugar beet, most wonderful wine that opens with time from the bottle.
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We were all slightly disappointed by the 1990, it certainly wasn't the blockbuster we were expecting. Its probably just shutting down. But the hints of things to come were there, deep dark colour, immature nose of iron and blackcuurant, on the palate tightly wound ripe spicy fruit that seemed to want to burst out and hard but juicy tannins. It just seemed a little shy and certainly wasn't the brash precocious thing I remebered. I would put it away for a bit longer.
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Dinner with Staenberg at Lampreia (Seattle, WA, USA): Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous bottle! This was part of a recent purchase from a cellar sale in Seattle. Despite the fact that the fill was pretty far down the neck, the cork was nearly perfect with not a hint of staining. The wine was unreal from the get-go with roasted black fruits, scorched earth, tobacco, and barnyard. It was both stern and brooding at the same time that it was forward and fruitful. This was just so flamboyant, showy and delicious, and it continues to show me just how amazing a nice 1990 Bordeaux can be.
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Seattle Tasting Group does 1990 Bordeaux (Woodinville, WA, USA): Group average is 92.25 points, #3 WOTN. My bottle. A nose of smoky fennel with a variety of herbal notes. This has an amazing body, intense, vibrant, packed with glycerin, powerful tannins, gaining sweetness in the glass. The finish is gorgeous, lengthy, and powerful.
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I met my parents for dinner tonight, and noticed the 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste on the list at a reasonable price, so I decided we needed to try it, particularly since I haven't had this wine in about 5 years. I was reminded of why I love Bordeaux, particularly great wines from Pauillac and St.-Julien. One whiff told the story, this is classic Bordeaux, sweet, pure cassis, delicately spiced with leathery, earthy tones and a lovely hint of violets. Initially a bit shy, only revealing its depths on the finish behind a veil of tannin, time and air gave us enough familiarity that it decided to relax and converse. Remarkably sweet, but with plenty of the nuance and structure that stop it from being cloying, by the end of the evening it was drinking superbly. Unfortunately, the bottle was empty before I was ready for our relationship to end, as so often happens. The wine should improve for several more years, but if you decant it an hour or two before dinner, you won't be disappointed.
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4/13/2024 - Rani Likes this wine: 93 Points
Tasted semi-blind (I knew the wine but not the vintage). Lovely floral nose, sous bois, dried thyme and red fruit notes. Tasted next to the 1982 and was better, more balanced and fresh. Quite elegant and in a wonderful place now.
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12/27/2023 - Eric Wright Likes this wine: 88 Points
Beautiful nose of tobacco and cocoa. Unfortunately the tobacco notes (almost like Copenhagen dip) overwhelm on the palate. Not spoiled, but lacking fruit or other complexity. Disappointing
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12/10/2023 - Terroir59 wrote: 94 Points
Decanted this bottle 3 hours before dinner. Still lots of fruit and freshness along with classic Pauillac notes and mature but still evident tannins. In a great place now and no rush to drink any remaining bottles over next 3-10 years.
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12/10/2023 - rwpalmer wrote: 92 Points
Perfect, mature claret. Initially seems to have held up better than the 1989 consumed as well. The 90 has a little fruit still, while the 89 is more leathery. Under vacuvin both were quite similar the next night. Good but not the most complex.
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11/24/2023 - joshabramson Likes this wine: 95 Points
Great bottle, very fresh! Pencil shavings and tobacco notes, lots of ripe fruit that shows the warmer vintage but with the restraint and austerity of Pauillac compared to the 78’ Trotanoy and 84’ Diamond Creek we drank side-by-side.
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6/22/2023 - djhammond wrote: 94 Points
A BYO in a restaurant, this was not the best example of this with it struggling to shrug off its tannin.
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4/16/2023 - Dibbs Likes this wine: 94 Points
Consistent note from the last time I consumed this. My feeling is that this is still on the upswing, with possibly more to come.
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4/8/2023 - Ianjaig Likes this wine: 95 Points
Cork completely crumbled upon opening which had me worried, but I needn't have as this was quite beautiful. First glass was all cigar box, red currants, milk chocolate with a finish that lasted several minutes or more. Decanted the rest of the bottle and this became fuller bodied, tannic, and yet so elegant and wonderfully balanced. This is an old school, classic that still has plenty of time on its side, but which is drinking wonderfully now. Pure joy. (12.5% alcohol).
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2/17/2023 - hkbob Likes this wine: 97 Points
PnP. Incredible nose from the first pour, gaining intensity with additional time in the glass. Pungent aromas of smoke, tobacco, cassis, deli meats, cedar, and a slate note. The nose was replicated on the silky smooth palate. Impeccable balance and a long sweet cedar-infused finish. This wine punched well above its weight and was an absolute delight. I don't expect further improvement from extended cellaring but I also don't believe there is a great rush to drink either if this is a representative bottle. That said, I still plan to consume my remaining bottle within the next 3 years so as not to tempt fate. If decanting, I suggest using a narrow-bodied decanter solely to separate the abundance of fine sediment as it doesn't need much aeration. Congratulations if you own this!
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2/17/2023 - Dionysos55 Likes this wine: 97 Points
Décanté 90 minutes.Robe encore bien soutenue.Cette bouteille est vraiment magnifique:le bouquet,très intense,est d'une complexité magistrale:cèdre,menthol,tabac,cassis,galets mouillés,café, on ne se lasse pas de humer et de humer encore et dans la foulée la bouche est phénoménale.C'est goûteux,suave,d'une élégance sublissime et une longueur superbe (j'ai noté 14 caudalies !!!).Je pense que ce millésime surpasse le 82 ce qui n'est pas peu dire....Je m'attendais à un très bon niveau pais quand même pas à ce point là.Le meilleur rouge bu cette année...et c'est un 5ème...
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2/12/2023 - k H i L o Likes this wine: 95 Points
C'est quand même bombesque !
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2/3/2023 - NoTrollingerPlease Likes this wine: 95 Points
1990 Bordeaux plus X (Restaurant Brunnenstube, Beinstein): Tasted blind. Decanted for several hours. Clear, deep youthful ruby color. Beautiful BDX nose at its full peak. Complex and deep.
On the palate not as perfect as the Haut-Brion, but also very elegant and young. Wonderful pressure and tension, great structure and tension. Great joy and a beautiful, fresh wine with a very long, lingering finish. Not even close to its peak. 95+
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12/27/2022 - VINNICK Likes this wine: 93 Points
Lovely Pauillac. Cedar tobacco pencil shavings and graphite. This will drink well for many years to come and should be interesting to see when it’s 40 years old. 93 plus more potential.
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12/25/2022 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 96 Points
A great classic of a claret is GPL 1990 of the great 90 vintage in Bordeaux. It is holding strong and offers up the whole umbrella of aged Pauillac Bordeaux goodies like saddle leather, library, graphite, gravel, earth and underbrush it also still has a tiny bit of exuberant fruit of blueberry (jam) burried underneath the tertiaries and always held up by pronounced minerality. Interestingly enough the fruit gets more pronounced after two hours of air so possibly I suggest not to be mislead from pnp and give well stored bottles a decant. It is very difficult to imagine this wine getting better and in fact I feel it as a bit better still 5 years back. While there is no hurry to drink it up I would say it’s on a long and gentle decline from its absolute apax. It is the best mature GPLI think slightly ahead of the 82.
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11/8/2022 - chatters wrote:
Cellartracker in the flesh with Pjaines (Paul), Porkandsalmon (Richard) and Vintomas (Tomas) (Various venues, London): Sweetly fruited with a little farmyard, sous bois, mushrooms, autumn leaves, a surprisingly perfumed top notes. Juicy, fleshy, dark hued fruits, mushrooms, tannins are talc textured and tight but, like the 96, are persistent and rather lovely. Nice and gets better with time - richer than the e.g. domaine de chevalier 1990 but very much a reflection of the vintage in my albeit limited experience. Yum.
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11/8/2022 - remyworldpeace Likes this wine: 93 Points
Lovely mature Bordeaux nose. Dark fruit, earthy forest floor, graphite. Palate deep, concentrated. Some dark fruit, blackberry etc but mostly tertiary driven; leafy forest floor, smokey, black olives. Dense with a long finish. Solid and still going strong but I felt this was just slightly losing some complexity and vibrancy compared to the greatest mature clarets I've had. Felt as if it developed and shows all of its layers of complexity but then this development prematurely hits a wall just before the climax... keen to try another bottle.
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10/16/2022 - havana4 🍾🍇 Likes this wine: 90 Points
Enjoyed at friends house wine night. Very fresh and in great condition. 2 hour decant. Just a great example of an aged claret. Gorgeous pale to medium garnet color. This one was in proper balance and not at all austere. Red currant, mushrooms, damp earth, unsmoked cigars.
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10/15/2022 - Michael Hung Likes this wine: 91 Points
[Pizza Dinner at Ryan's]
Mature Bordeaux, decanted for 2 hours. Very distinctive of Bordeaux, wet earth, mushrooms and forest floor. Red fruit still apparent, but not as lively and slightly muddled. Lacking intensity and vibrancy, but it is complex and nuanced. Great style for classical mature Bordeaux lovers. Drink now as it is in its peak.
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7/2/2022 - doug374 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Great color, no light coming through. A elegant silky texture with fruits and mineral notes blending well. A great drinking window would expect it to hold for several years.
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4/1/2022 - jviz wrote: 95 Points
PnP, followed over a few hours. This was a delight. Showing the warmth of the vintage, it had cranberry sauce, orange zest, brick baked fruit, and sweet blonde tobacco. Blind, I would have been faked out for a right banker.
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3/18/2022 - PhN Likes this wine: 94 Points
Delicious Claret in its prime. Great depth, soft tannin, excellent fruit with complexity to be expected in such a wine. It opened rapidly, 30-40 minutes but revealed much of its value the moment the cork was pulled. I have one more bottle I will hold for a while, if I can resist drinking it.
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3/11/2022 - dbg wrote:
Purchased last month for this dinner, perfect cork and fill into the neck. Double decanted 3 hours before serving blind. Dark red core, lighter at rim. Expressive nose of cassis, cedar, earth. Red fruits, medium to full body, good balance, medium finish. Typical Pauillac nose and palate, group guessed 1989 Pauillac. Up against some other 1990s, this finished some distance behind the 1990 Montrose which was WOTN, and the 1990 Leoville Las Cases. Drinking very well now, should go another decade. Excellent.
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2/24/2022 - djhammond Likes this wine: 96 Points
I feel this is now matching the 1982 and on occasions bettering it. It is at the top of its game and although displaying tertiary notes, it retains a wonderful freshness. Dark berry fruits, old leather, and cedar dominate with hints of violet, and the nose is deeply aromatic and lingering. The tannin is fully resolved, and the finish pushes 40 seconds with excellent depth and balance. An hour in the decanter is perfectly sufficient. 96+
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2/19/2022 - jyensan wrote: 94 Points
Needs an hour to open up and blow off some funk but then…outstanding! Smooth but firm tannins, just enough deep red and dark fruits. Incredible smell of saddle leather and damp earth. In a perfect spot and enjoyable over 3 hours. I would say it is at its peak, but no rush to drink. Glad I have 3 more!
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12/26/2021 - rlove wrote: 90 Points
The 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is a quite savory, classic aged Bordeaux that's all pencil and tobacco with just a whisper of red currant. Lithe, with intensity outsized to its weightless form, ripe acidity and mostly-resolved tannins.
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11/17/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
Powerful, full-bodied, rustic, but in a good way, the austerity in the currants with all the tobacco leaf, cigar box, green leafy, spicy herbs, and bright red, crisp fruits are everything you want in a classic Pauillac. About an hour of air will help the experience.
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10/2/2021 - Cooky474 wrote: 94 Points
Liverpool title celebrations (London): performed better than the last bottle drunk back in 2015, but it didn't reach the heights expected.
Classic Bordeaux on the nose and palate with blackberry, cigar and cedar. Very decent length.
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9/19/2021 - k H i L o Likes this wine: 96 Points
Tous ceux qui ont mis moins de 95 étaient atteints de Covid-19 quand ils l'ont bu!!!
Ce vin est une lumière perceptible par d'autres sens que celui de la Vue ! Il fait changer d'espace vectoriel...
Tu remarques bien les marques du temps qu'il a traversé mais en même temps, il manifeste une telle vigueur que tu es tout le temps pris à contre-pied.
C'est exceptionnel.
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6/24/2021 - rocknroller wrote: 94 Points
Jason Goes Nuts & Guys Ride Again (Jason's, St. Paul, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Unknown treatment. Drank a glass plus over 3 hours plus. Geez, time flies; I've had the '90 GPL a number of times, but its been three years since the last bottle. This bottle might have benefited from some extra air, though we had a good bit of time to watch it evolve, which it did nicely. Dense, full bodied, blackberry, creme de cassis, intense nose. The palate shows lovely sweet black fruits, creme de cassis, blackberry compote, violets, graphite, rich and full bodied with layer upon layer here; velveteen texture with round plush tannins and a long finish. This will be another very long lived GPL. 94(+)pts.
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6/24/2021 - galewskj wrote: 93 Points
The Guys Ride Again (Jason and Mariellen's): Decanted 30 minutes. The wine is slightly austere. Surprisingly, there's the aroma of dark chocolate. Well-aged bordeaux but previous bottles were slightly better.
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6/24/2021 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 95 Points
The Return of Guys Night Out!: Another wine worthy of praise! This wine is in the front end of its prime IMO, i.e., it has quite a bit of life in front of it, while striking a balance between fruit and tertiary flavors. The wine is currently leaning to the fruit side of the spectrum, but has plenty tertiary flavors to accompany that fruit. This is why people age Bordeaux....to experience a wine that walks the tightrope between fruit and tertiary flavors that make you pause and think about what you just experienced!
On the nose, this wine shows red fruit, cigar and cedar. The palate is even better, with red, black and blue fruit, earth, tobacco and hints of sweet wood all lurking somewhere and taking turns creeping out to tantalize the taste buds. An excellent and profound wine, and worthy of 94+ to 95 points.
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4/25/2021 - djhammond Likes this wine: 97 Points
This is in its prime drinking window and for myself the best GPL drinking out performing the 1982. It is mature Bordeaux at its best. Blackcurrant, blackberry, plum and old leather dominate with hints of cedar and violet. It is showing secondary and tertiary notes and it deserves another point or two, but the finish, albeit pushing 60 seconds, becomes tannic and unbalanced at the very end. An hour of decanting is perfectly adequate.
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1/4/2021 - Dibbs wrote: 95 Points
Amazingly fresh and nuanced wine. It is drinking at its apogee with a good few years left in the bottle. This is exactly how I like my Bordeaux with freshness and tertiary notes intermingling with fruit and tannins that are mostly resolved. This should last for good 10 years easily.
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12/30/2020 - melvinyeowq Likes this wine:
Monumental wine. There’s an immense power to this coupled with some tertiary Bordeaux characteristics of cigar ash and tobacco. Ripe fruit for its time, some savouriness to the wine that I liked. I do love old school Bordeaux that have a certain rusticity and marginal ripeness character. They don’t quite make wines like this anymore.
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12/26/2020 - sirwine Likes this wine: 92 Points
This wine was decanted af least two hours and was full of tertiary flavors — pencil lead, cedar, tar, light smoke. Amazing what 30 years can do for a wine. Fully mature and ready to drink. Cork was still solid and the color did not give away its age.
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12/24/2020 - etyc Likes this wine:
PnP'ed. Ready from the get-go and at peak. Earth, mushroom, pencil-lead, tobacco, this was nicely balanced with freshness. Doubt it'll improve - could feel that the fruit is "plateau'ing". Regardless, a nice drink for now, and especially good with the meats.
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11/20/2020 - CHINACAT wrote: 96 Points
Ripe dark fruit. Rich, earthy and decadent, with a velvety texture. A dinner guest aptly described this bottle as "liquid candy". A wonderful wine.
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11/11/2020 - johneagle Likes this wine: 94 Points
Maybe a bit high because I love mature GPL and this was a bottle from my Father's cellar. Right at is peak now. (I drank one in March and It was so good I bought another dozen - fingers crossed as to where thy have been! Drank with a roast chicken with a little anchovy butter under the breast and goodness did this wine sing - perfect, though its not going to improve much now. Bravo
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10/24/2020 - Ericsson Likes this wine: 95 Points
Bordal à Carouge (Ducru, Las Cases, Vega, Sassicaia, GPL...) (Chez Anne et Claude): Double aveugle (mon magnum, high fill). Ouvert 6 heures avant dégustation.
Dégusté après les 6 premiers vins.
Au nez arômes secondaires et tertiaires, fumée, pot-pourri, feuilles mortes, champignons, mousse.
En bouche, équilibré, à point, concentré, tanins patinés, bonne longueur.
Acheté en primeur et dernier représentant de ce millésime, ce magnum était à son apogée.
94-96 pour ceux qui aiment les vins un peu rustiques et à point.
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10/11/2020 - englishman's claret wrote: 93 Points
This example shows more red-fruited than I would have imagined with a potent redcurrant, wild raspberry nose, accented by lots of pencil. Followed for about 3 hours without much evolution, this shows a nice nose but never really kicks into high gear. Juicy, pencilly, black pepper palate.
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10/2/2020 - D'Yquembe Mutumbo wrote: 94 Points
Last bottle of a great week of wine. This is fully mature; plenty of cedar, tobacco, moist earth, savory spice. Palate was well balanced, with enough black fruit and cassis showing through the minerality. This will drink well for at least another 3 years or so if well stored, it's great when Bordeauxs get to this place, there's nothing I enjoy more.
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9/19/2020 - _water.into.wine_ Likes this wine:
No formal note. Classic bordeaux. Very mature at this stage and probably at the peak. At 30 years the colour has held up, but definitely showing some fatigue in the palate. Wonderful to try a legendary wine. From JY
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9/2/2020 - LWI wrote: 93 Points
Warm and comforting, faint tannin, lacks a bit of nerve and structure.
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8/5/2020 - NickA Likes this wine: 92 Points
The Development of Older Bordeaux (Zoom!): 70% CS, 25% Merlot, 5% CF. 12.5% alcohol.
Appears pretty dark. A lot more menthol than in the first flight's wines - almost too prominent. Cassis and damp earth. Long blackcurrant (cough pastille) fruit finish. Really fresh but lacks a bit on the mid-palate, so (if this bottle is representative) unlikely to improve from here.
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7/17/2020 - AlphaMikeFoxtrot Likes this wine: 96 Points
Decanted for two hours and it really came into its own. Cassis, blueberry, black cherry and a really nice astringent quality to it. Graphite, tobacco and dried herbs. In a great place right now, and feels like it has longer to go still.
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7/4/2020 - martin_e Likes this wine: 99 Points
First-growth quality Bordeaux. Beautiful, complex, balanced, complete with a long finish. Cassis and blueberry aromas with hints of herbs and spices; flavors composed of layer upon layer of evolving notes of black fruits (cassis, plum, blueberry,...), some unusual for Bordeaux red applies, and a bit of seeds and nuts. Very balanced and complete with well-developed front and mid palates and super long finish! It'd be a 100-point bottle to me had the aromas been more pronounced.
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6/28/2020 - colmanstephenson wrote:
Drank with the Smiths and Hitchcock’s at a BBQ at ours. Richard brought it.
Good deep colour.
Delicious smoky aroma.
Warm and thoroughly integrated.
In great shape. A beautiful wine.
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6/4/2020 - johnh1001 wrote: 94 Points
Bright and balanced. Earth, dark fruit and pencil. Classic paulliac. Slightly thinner than I remember but wonderful flavor and balance.
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5/10/2020 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
A beautiful example of a classic Pauillac in its prime time drinking window. The cedar, tobacco leaf, cassis, blackberry, herb and earthy nose is compelling. Full-bodied, concentrated and fully developed, the tannins are soft and fully integrated, leaving you with fresh, roasted, ripe, round, red fruits and cigar wrapper in the long finish. Perfectly balanced between classic and refined, there is no reason to age this any longer. Splash decanted, this is completely ready to go.
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4/5/2020 - djhammond Likes this wine: 97 Points
With better bottles this is now outperforming the excuisite 1982 and is a candidate for the best Paulliac of year. This is firmly in its drinking window, displaying secondary and tertiary notes, and is classic old school mature Bordeaux. The nose is blackberry, blackcurrant, plum, and old leather with hints of cedar and violet. The tannin is sweet but still robust with great depth and complexity on the palate. Likewise the finish is perfectly balanced and pushing 60 seconds. I am conflicted over aeration, leaning towards only an hour in an open decanter but it does need time in the glass to fully come alive.
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2/21/2020 - etyc Likes this wine:
Has been a while since I last had a Bord... Decanted for a while & poured (blind), the ever familiar nose of a Bord came to mind immediately - lead, leather, leafy, blackberries, plus a slight tinge of funk! The funk wasn't exactly intrusive, but it also kinda detract (imo). Nicely mature, this had a silky, resolved texture but also had nice intensity of dark fruits that I doubt will fade anytime soon. All-in-all, this was just great with the lamb chops at Wakanui!
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11/9/2019 - NoTrollingerPlease Likes this wine: 96 Points
Best bottle (Restaurant Holz und Feuer, Kirchheim, Germany): Glass: Gabriel Standard
Clear, deep tawny color. Lovely, fully open classic Bordeaux nose with fine leather, tobacco and spices.
On the palate very open and at its full peak. Fine red fruit, tobacco and leather. Medium+, perfectly integrated acidity, medium+ tanning. Very balanced, but also with an enormous pressure and tension. BDX at its full peak! Great! 95-96
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11/2/2019 - tbabes wrote: 98 Points
Another monumental showing of the 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste! The fill was into the neck and the cork was sound; opened an hour before service. Medium garnet with no bricking. An extroverted an outgoing bouquet, offering up notes of cassis, blackberry, sun baked stones, dried plums, with hints of black truffle and earth. Medium bodied, great depth and concentration, with a perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. A heavenly finish that lasts for over a minute. On this night, the '82 proved superior, but both are drinking perfectly at present.
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10/30/2019 - Hamozus Likes this wine: 97 Points
The bottle looked perfect, from the label to its level. The wine did not disappoint.
Nose was lovely, I was constantly coming back to it. Average intensity but particularly pleasant and refined mix of fruit, leather, tobacco.
The palate is both dense and thin with a fine-grained texture.It stretches and it extends impressively. Silky palate,, the fruit is alive and quite ripe but there is an impressive balance. No heat notes, the 12.5% alcohol surely helps. This is a ballerina of a wine.
La bouteille avait l'air parfaite, niveau comme étiquette. Le vin n'a pas déçu.
On se plonge sans arrêt dans le nez, à l'intensité moyenne mais particulièrement agréable et raffiné, un mix de fruit, de cuir et de tabac. La bouche est à la fois fine et dense, ça s'étire et ça s'élonge de façon impressionnante. Bouche soyeuse, impressionnante d'équilibre, le fruit est vivant, bien mûr mais pas de sensation de chaleur, les 12.5% d'alcool seulement aident surement. C'est une ballerine ce vin.
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10/20/2019 - Jdwinedrinker Does not like this wine:
Have a few of these... pulled one and decanted. Had some roasted elements that were off-putting. I am thinking this bottle must have been heat damaged :(.
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9/5/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 96 Points
Second bottle within a week. Always a treat and all-time classic claret favourite from yet another perfect bottle. Possibly a tiny bit less fruit then the bottle from earlier the week or it might have been the side by side with Guigal La Mouline 1999 and with a delicious Canard a la Presse. Both wines were great. For more notes on this see my previous TNs which absolutely hold. 96-
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9/2/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 96 Points
Always a treat - a perfect bottle of GPL 1990! This from a perfect bottle with perfect fill, label and cork barely soaked delivered big time. Decanted for one hour in a wide decanter and savoured over the following hour this was in its sweet spot. 12.5% alcohol is what I love here. An immense difference to the 14% Canon 05 served just before. If someone does not like this wine with its aristocratic nose of leather, library, tobacco, cassis and its pure palate with perfectly balanced acidity then one does not like (classic left bank) Bordeaux. A gentlemen's wine and such a ballerina. Drink now-2030 but I do like where it is right now and has been for the last ~5 years. This will hold but it is difficult to imagine that it has not peaked. So I will be drinking my bottles unashamedly now and if need be repurchase.
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8/26/2019 - Mr T wrote:
Decanted for about an hour before dinner and then drunk over 1-2 hours with main course. Some brown along edges but fruit still good and wine not at all thin or tired or played out. That said, never quite strutted and nose not really giving, even when done drinking and often the residual smell in the glass is better than any moment when actually drinking. Overall, a good but not great experience. Perhaps with 1/2 the bottle to myself, might have gotten there. All the correct elements were there and maybe just a little more time would have helped
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7/16/2019 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 94 Points
This bottle was fully mature, a gentle and elegant wine, harmonious, medium bodied, perfectly classical Pauillac, almost fully resolved tannins, with the generosity of a warm vintage. Tasting blind, I thought this was a 1985, and my generous host informed me that this bottle was more developed than others from his stock, which had been more vigorous. But I loved it all the same.
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7/9/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 95 Points
Tobacco, wood, leather, cassis, pencil shaving - a beautiful mature great claret. I had scored this higher in the past as possibly this bottle showed a bit less of the core sweet 90 fruit than other bottles I scored even higher. Still a terrific showing yet again! GPL 90 is a classic.
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5/14/2019 - Thoughtful Likes this wine: 95 Points
Stored in a cold cellar since release. Very high fill. Perfect condition.
Lovely bouquet of cedar, lead pencil and black fruit. Deep coloured only hints of brown. Resolved tannins. Balance and length. Hard to judge whether it will gain complexity - could become a very special wine .Perfect Pauillac. Correctly stored will be fine at fifty
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5/11/2019 - tbabes wrote: 97 Points
The fill was into the neck and the cork was pristine; opened about 2 hours before service, but no decant. A deep garnet core with a hint of bricking a the rim. Notes of ripe plums, roasted fennel, earth, roasted fennel and black truffles. Medium bodied, with a silky texture, amazing balance, great concentration, and a long and classic finish.
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1/20/2019 - djhammond Likes this wine: 97 Points
Firmly in its prime drinking window, this only needs a short time in the decanter. It is a wonderful mature Bordeaux. The nose is full of blackcurrant, cedar, and tobacco, with background hints of violet. The tannin has sweetened but the palate retains a steeliness. It is multi layered with great depth, and a finish nearing 60 seconds. This has moved forward in the last 6 months, and for myself, is now my favourite Grand Puy Lacoste, outperforming the outstanding 1982. This is at its absolute peak, and should stay here for another couple of decades.
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10/18/2018 - tbabes wrote: 100 Points
The fill was into the neck and the cork was pristine; opened, but not decanted, about an hour before service. A mature purple ruby core, turning to ruby at the rim. An expressive and complex bouquet, offering up notes of ripe plums, cedary cassis, cigar box, roasted fennel, and hints of iodine and black truffle. Medium bodied, with great lift and a velvety texture; you can almost taste the sunshine! Great concentration and depth, with a perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. A heavenly finish that lasts for over a minute. Once again, this wine exemplified everything that is beautiful about well stored mature Bordeaux, and in particular the 1990 vintage. An privilege to experience!
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8/13/2018 - galewskj wrote: 94 Points
When the first wine posted is a 1983 Chateau Margaux....: I could smell this all day, it has a rich savory sweet nose. Floral, a litle baking spice, nice red-fruit with cherry standing out. Of course, this is old Bordeaux, leather, funk, earth, cedar.
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8/9/2018 - rocknroller wrote: 94 Points
Guys Night - Bordeaux '99 and Older/Napa '04 and Older (Joe's Place, Mpls, Mn): Very dark red color. Splash double decanted for 30 minutes. Drank 2 pours over 4 hours. This has a high toned nose, it actually tickles the nose hairs, splendid pencil lead, violets, funk, damp earth, black fruits of cassis and black raspberry. The palate is bigger and dense, full bodied with notable concentration, black cherry, cassis, still has a youthful feel for its age, yet clearly evolving nicely. This has the goods to age gracefully for another 25 years.
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6/22/2018 - djhammond Likes this wine: 96 Points
A wonderful wine, drinking at its peak, but with a structure to stay here for many years. Flavours of blackcurrent and cedar with a hint of violet are prominent on the nose. The fruit with tobacco are the foreground flavours on the palate, with great depth and complexity. The tannin balances perfectly and the finish is long. I followed Jeff Leve's advice on the shorter decant and I found an hour in an open decanter just about right. 96+
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5/11/2018 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
If you're looking for that blend of tobacco and cassis, with cedar, lead pencil, a bit of green pepper and crushed rocks, you came to the right place. Firm, full-bodied, concentrated and with a depth of flavor, the smoky cassis on the palate hits the spot. There is a touch of bitter chocolate on top of the cassis in the finish. This is drinking just great today. It was good out of the bottle, so do not over decant. 30 minutes of air is fine.
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4/29/2018 - Mjladha Likes this wine: 94 Points
Beautiful. Black currant, minty, peppery
Could go on to become as good or better than 1982 grand puy and 1982 gruaud larose
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3/18/2018 - Ozen Likes this wine: 94 Points
What a treat to drink these two wines next to each other, just after a Batard Montrachet 2005 from Sauzet: Grand Puy Lacoste 1990 and the Palmer 1989. The Grand Puy Lacoste 1990 opens the party with a mouth filling, beautiful display of abundant, ripe fruit. That is a lot of superlatives and yes: It is as if you were dropped from space onto a heavenly meadow at its peak of of a somewhat hot if not just heavy summer. Clearly more masculine than the Palmer 1989 next to it, with the Lacoste having some seasoned-leather quality, the rich fruit all meshed together in a feast for the palate. More blatant ambition too; to please thru impact, compared to the more feminine, way more sophisticated Palmer. The Lacoste has a subtle bitterness, if not truffle, in the aftertaste that is typical for Pauillac and kind of a signature of its terroir. The best Grand Puy Lacoste I have tasted (I had this beauty more than a dozen times). Frankly the 1982 is no competition here, nor are the 2000 and definitely not the 2005 of which I am not a fan. Fully mature now and at its (long) peak. Loovely!
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3/16/2018 - tbabes wrote: 99 Points
The fill was into the neck and the cork was sound; opened, but not decanted, about an hour before service. A pretty purple ruby core, turning to ruby at the rim. A complex and expressive bouquet, proudly displaying notes of cedary cassis, ripe plums, aged tobacco, roasted fennel, hot stones, and hints of black truffle. Medium bodied, with a truly profound texture; pure velvet! Great concentration and depth of flavor, with perfect balance of flavor, ripeness, and structure. An ethereal finish that one could become lost in! Really this bottle explempfies everything that is beautiful about well stored mature Bordeaux, and in particular the 1990 vintage. A joy to experience!
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2/26/2018 - MQuentel@web.de Likes this wine: 96 Points
1990 Grand Puy Lacoste The nose is porn, leather, chocolate, forest fruit. Expressive, multi-layered and elegant. On the palate a virtuoso combination of intensity, complexity and finesse; crumbly, fine-grained tannins, very good concentration and aromatic depth, plums, cigar box, tobacco, dark fruits, acidity perfect, fine sweetness from the extract. Beautiful, delicate spiciness into the long finish. 96 Points
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11/25/2017 - Burgnick Likes this wine: 92 Points
Pnp. Nose has herbs, green pepper, tobacco, smoked fruit, red fruit and black fruit. Palate is smooth with ripe red currant. Drinking well now.
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11/2/2017 - svdheijden wrote:
Not the best showing of this wine. A bit tired and appearing quite a bit older than its actual age. On previous occasions this wine always surprises by its youthfulness, as recent tasting notes from other tasters below confirm. May the next bottle be better!
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10/9/2017 - Burgnick Likes this wine: 92 Points
Decanted for 45 mins. Nose has sous bois, green pepper, and plums. Palate has sweet dark fruit and sandalwood. It is very smooth and soft but it lacks complexity and power. Drinking at peak now. Lots of pleasure. Some tasters who had this wine side by side with the 90 Lynch Bages liked the gpl better. But I think the LB is a more complete and complex wine that still has upside with more aging.
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9/22/2017 - asayed Likes this wine: 95 Points
My oh my! This is wonderful! Decanted for 45 minutes. Color is younger than its 27 years of age. Cassis and cedar. Very enjoyable and almost sweet residual tannins. I like this even more than the 1995 or the 2000 Grand Puy Lacoste. Still has a lot of life in it.
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9/2/2017 - rSyver wrote: 93 Points
27 year old lady with a certain D. In a great phase now although there is no rush at all as there is plenty of fruit left so no worries from my side. Typical Pauillac when load of black currant, leather, tobacco/cigar and some earthy elements. Add a great length on the palate it is pretty much a great bottle of wine which reminds me that I have way too little Bordeaux in the cellar.
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8/6/2017 - djhammond Likes this wine: 96 Points
Last tasted 18 months ago, this wine is now firmly in its prime drinking window, and for me now outperforming the 1982. Possessing deep aromas of blackcurrent and plum with a hint of violet, on the palate the tannin is beefy but perfectly balanced with the fruit. A lengthy finish completes the wine. Drinking at its prime, the wine has the structure to stay here for many years. A couple of hours in the decanter is still recommended. 96+
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7/15/2017 - Ericsson wrote: 94 Points
Achetée en primeurs, il s'agissait de ma dernière bouteille....mais il me reste un magnum!!
Into neck, bouchon impeccable. Nez sur les arômes de cassis, encre de Chine, etc
En fait ma dernière note de dégustation s'applique mot pour mot :)
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7/1/2017 - Winemaker51 Likes this wine: 93 Points
We had a magnum of this wine, which held up beautifully! It took 1 to 2 hours to open up, but boy did it! Some damp earth, tobacco leaf, very slight Brett, but just enough to make it complex. Black cherry fruit throughout and tannins resolved. Just enough fruit remains. Very, Cabernet-Pauillac like. Brilliant expression why Pauillac is Ground Zero for Cabernet in France! Drinkable now, and I would not wait any longer.
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6/11/2017 - blanquito wrote: 94 Points
Starts slowly, but gets real with a little warm up. Cassis, earthy, leather. Deep, smooth, elegant, terrific attack and mouthfeel, great acids and length, wow. Still some tannins on backend, but fully in the zone.
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5/11/2017 - Ericsson Likes this wine: 95 Points
Superbe bouteille achetée en primeur! Into neck, bouchon humide sur 1/10 seulement.
Pas de passage en carafe cette fois.
Robe grenat foncé, peu de traces d'évolution.
Nez sur des arômes de cassis, d'encre de chine, de mine de crayon, très réussi.
En bouche, le vin est à son apogée, il fait feu de tout bois, avec une longueur incroyable. Tout est en place pour un excellent moment de plaisir.
Pourquoi pas une note plus élevée? Le vin manque un peu de complexité (p. ex. vs LLC 90 bu il y a quelques semaines) et les tanins pourraient être encore plus fins.
A boire sur une dizaine d'années.
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4/30/2017 - Bordeaux_Jon Likes this wine: 94 Points
From a half bottle.
This wine was impressively young tasting, considering it was a half bottle, and compared to the 1990 Mouton tasted the night before. My last encounter with this wine was a little less than 10 years ago and it was a tannic and austere beast, powerful and not much fun to drink. It has definitely come around quite a bit from my half bottle and based on the past few Cellartracker reviews with very high scores.
At first, the nose was very full of red fruit, cassis, raspberry, and cherry, much like the 2005 I had recently. Perhaps this red fruit blast is a GPL trait? I liked it but was hoping for more complexity and secondary characteristics. Over a few hours, more black fruit notes of blackberry and black cherry emerged with hints of oak, cigar, earth, and pencil lead. Aside from the fruit, the wine was rather austere on the nose, and I'd like to see more of those other traits. If given more time, I feel like they would have emerged although when I tried it again in the morning it hadn't blossomed either and was beginning to tire out.
The palate was very fruity and intense. Lots of red fruit early on, with black fruit and some oak later. After a couple hours, the tannins began to show. It was certainly better with food and sipping on its own. This is still a big wine, and I can imagine even more so from a full bottle. It is certainly more Parker-styled than the 1990 Mouton. While I liked it, it didn't quite rise to the 95+ point level, though I could see the potential there, perhaps with more time to aerate or perhaps from another bottle. I'm interested to try this again soon and see if the bottle will be as superb as others have said.
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3/10/2017 - DrinkBordeaux wrote: 96 Points
Super 1990s Bordeaux Tasting (Wine Watch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida): The most impressive wine of the evening, outperforming a number of first growths. It was the consensus wine of the night (tasted single blind). Showing much younger than its age. Very dark color. Amazing complexity on the nose, with pure black currant, pencil shavings, tobacco, barnyard, earth, and spice. Dense, layered, and beautifully balanced on the palate. A long finish. Acidity nicely balancing the fruit. Lots of years left with this wine, but it is clearly drinking at its peak.
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2/15/2017 - hm$ wrote: 96 Points
supple, beautiful
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2/14/2017 - ElAzul Likes this wine: 95 Points
Just terrific, what a bargain. Cork was in very good shape with only about 1/4 inch of run. Some bricking but so what? The initial Bordeaux funk nose disappeared in a few minutes to reveal strong cedar notes, did not sense any tobacco as some of the other prior tasters did. Black fruit, fully resolved soft tannins and a wonderful finish that lasts a full minute. Wine is fully mature but will last another 5-10 years easy. Wish I had more. Look forward to tasting tomorrow night to see if it holds but having trouble putting it down right now!
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1/20/2017 - jkoenen wrote: 97 Points
Bordeaux 1990 (Restaurant Fitzgerald, Rotterdam): I believe this particular wine was once called 'A Poor Man's Latour'...
So true.
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11/19/2016 - salil wrote: 95 Points
Absolutely loved this. Firing on all cylinders with a rich core of dark berried fruit, tobacco, graphite, herbs, and developed leathery and earthy notes. Classic Pauillac flavours conveyed with both power and finesse, with a palate presence that's intense yet elegant, and well structured with grainy tannin and bright acids beneath. Fantastic with roast chicken, but I could have been happy just sitting and smelling this half the evening.
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11/9/2016 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 97 Points
Consistent with my tasting last year. A truly great classic Pauillac from the incredible 1990 vintage. 5 hours decant, and it needs it. Colour is showing some noticeable bricking in the glass, the nose is classic with beautiful cedar wood, tobacco. The palate is just sublime - very meaty, cranberry, great acidity and soft tannins that will all ensure this wine will hold for a decade +, but surely it is at its best now already with decant. For some reason the wrong aromatics remind me a bit of Mouton 2005 at a possible future stage (alas I think the Mouton could turn out somewhat similar, I own the Mouton and would certainly not displeased if this were the case In ten years) which shows what class I would put this wine into. For me the best GPL to date. A tad better then 1982. Definitely better then 1995, 1996 and 2000. Most likely better then 2005 but I have hopes the latter might turn out similar-ish. Oh, and I have not tried 2009,10 or 15 yet, but then again that would be foolish as GPL really needs 10 years+++, ideal not to touch before 20th anniversary. To me this is the real deal and leaves nothing to be desired from a Bdx left bank love's perspective.
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10/29/2016 - Lord Rayas wrote: 95 Points
Dinner with Peter H and Alastair C (Bo Innovation): drinking beautifully after an hour in decanter. delicious.
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10/28/2016 - Sonoma Duck Likes this wine: 95 Points
Last bottle, decanted for 45 minutes. Lightening at the rim. Cedar and leather nose. Really long finish, definitely a food wine and not a cocktail wine. Really excellent. I have had several and this seems like it is fully mature. It will hold for a while but why not enjoy it now? Excellent.
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10/2/2016 - djhammond Likes this wine: 96 Points
A wonderfully powerful wine with deep cassis and plum on the nose. It just explodes in the mouth with an overwhelming burst of deep dark fruit and earthy, but resolved tannins. The finish is amazing tapering for 30 + seconds with no residual harshness. This is a classic left banker full of big tannins just entering into full maturity. This did benefit from a 5 hour decant.
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8/29/2016 - octopussy Likes this wine: 96 Points
Plummy red, bricking on the rim. In the nose, this was super elegant, fairly soft, it showed notes of milk coffee, oriental spices, leather, hibiscus, rose hip and barnyard, it was super fine and very complex. In the mouth, it was dominated by its immense structure that was near-perfectly balanced, the tannins were super-fine, the acidity fairly mild, adding to an overall suave mouthfeel. Dizzying complexity in the very long finish.
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6/24/2016 - liber Likes this wine: 95 Points
2nd of 6, decanted an hour, perfect cork and level, previous bottle VF - medium dark garnet, some lightening; very attractive cassis driven bouquet, very GPL, secondaries developing nicely; medium bodied, long and persistent, silky, round tannins nicely integrated, quality fruit as ever, lovely, satisfying classy, slightly understated, and classic claret, just lacking multi layered nuance found in LLC and 1st growths, drink or hold! Just VF (18.5).
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5/31/2016 - "Rhône Rider" Likes this wine: 93 Points
1990 Ch. Grand Puy-Lacoste: Tobakk, parfyme, kirsebær, solbær. Strukturert, intens med lang sekundær avslutning. Herlig erkebordeaux. 93p
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5/5/2016 - KenK Likes this wine: 93 Points
Plummy rich fruit foward nose with a wet earth element. Dark sweet black fruits in a pure dense style with a nearly port like quality. Very good, although comes accoss almost over ripe. Reasonable stucture to support the fruit, although clearly fruit driven. Seems almost still to young and maybe touch over extracted. The fruit is yummy and packed. Could see this integrating even more with time. Fun to drink now, but still a baby.
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4/2/2016 - blanquito wrote: 94 Points
Found this orphaned toward the end of the night, and this quickly made it into my top 5 wines. Layered, long, concentrated, with waves of '90 fruit, but this is an old school Pauillac through and through with classic lead pencil, cassis and green tobacco. Only in early maturity, this is seamless and engaging. 94-95 pts.
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12/16/2015 - Cooky474 Likes this wine: 92 Points
This is undoubtably a lovely bottle of wine but I do wonder if it was suffering from a little bottle-shock after a trek across London and then no significant decant to allow it to settle.
Fantastic nose albeit not as extravert as a bottle of La Conseillante '98 from the night before - classic Bordeaux tobacco and spices with a hint of red fruits. Beautifully balanced in the mouth with a long-length even if a little reticent to come out. My next bottle of this will be drunk at home after a significant decant.
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12/10/2015 - Papies wrote: 94 Points
Requires some decanting but this is now at peak we believe. Having tried this twice before (2011 Papies 95, 2014 Papies 94) we are now of the view that this wine is at peak. The rich core of fruit that was there in 2011 is definitely mellowed out (there is still a good amount of fruit here though) and beyond this we believe the wine might start to dry out. Definitely our favorite GPL (at least for now) and a wine that will put a huge smile to any classic claret lover. 94 once again and drink now.
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11/19/2015 - Per-Harald wrote: 94 Points
Lots of power, still dark red, smells and tastes still as a young wine, and still very promising, one of the best bordeaux purchases from 1990 vintage. You can put it away in a cold cellar for at least another 10 years, not even close to being mature now, but can be drunk today. Points will rise if you save it at least a further five years
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11/19/2015 - Yagil wrote: 94 Points
Wine-Nona post-Bordeaux trip meeting (Messa Restaurant, Tel-Aviv): double decanting 2 hours prior to consuming
dark opaque red-purple
top quality tertiary fruity aromas, with lingering quality leather & tobacco notes,
full bodied, soft integrated round tannins, mature red and black fruits flavours, perfect balance of fruit, tannins structure & complexity, excellent by all measures. Long seductive aftertaste.
An outstanding wine!
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9/14/2015 - quaffnov Likes this wine: 96 Points
G-P-L Vertical (82',90',96',98',00',03',05') Evening: Second wine of the evening and overall my favorite. The nose came across as younger and more potent than the 82', with similar characteristics but showing more fruit and less cigar box/cedar. The palate was spectacular, lighting my mouth up cassis, cedar and earth. The 82' was by comparison on the feminine side while the 90' had a more masculine characteristic to it that kept going for a good 30 seconds after I cleared my palate. This has many years ahead of it, with the tannins still going strong and the acidity in the medium range. Great bottle of wine!
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6/20/2015 - svdheijden wrote: 95 Points
Opened three hours before. Should have been longer. This wine rejuvenates and opens itself in an incredible way. Full-bodied, at first some brett, but blowing off quickly. The whole platter of red (cassis!) and black fruits, tobacco, graphite, spices. More severe, St Estephe-like on the palate, though tannines are soft. Fresh and pure. Long finish. Will continue to drink wel for 15+ years.
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4/23/2015 - BenBlu Likes this wine: 97 Points
What a beautiful bottle of wine. Enjoyed alongside the GPL 2000 with rump steak, I could not take my hands off the 1990 and ignored the 2000 during the meal. Beautifully balanced, nice acidity and lovely gamey notes - this will last another 1-2 decades easily. Great stuff!
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4/9/2015 - Frank Schneider wrote: 94 Points
3 hours of decant , warm and smooth nose with a classic paulliac mix of wood and dark freuits, medium to full bodied, lacking a little bit of power we would have expected of such a great reputation, but nonetheless a beautiful wine.
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2/14/2015 - Ericsson Likes this wine: 93 Points
Bouteille et bouchon en parfaite condition. High fill pour cette bouteille achetée en primeurs. Carafé durant 2 heures. Grenat foncé avec des reflets brique sur le disque.
Superbe nez de cassis et d'encre de Chine, puis quelques arômes floraux, sous-bois, humus.
En bouche, l'attaque est dense, la bouche est ample, avec une belle structure et de la matière.
La finale est longue, un peu ternie par des tanins légèrement granuleux.
A boire durant les 15 ans à venir.
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12/26/2014 - finewinebuff57 wrote: 92 Points
5 Decades of Grand Put Lacoste tasting with Richard Brazier. A tremendous 1990, full colour, great nose and balance, but some years away from maturity. Be patient!
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10/11/2014 - 3daywinereview.com wrote: 90 Points
1990 Bordeaux Tasting (Kevin's (Minneapolis)): Underwhelming bottle or wine. Subtle nose of damp earth, tobacco, underbrush and spices. Palate added some blueberry notes but was a bit thin. Medium finish. Seeing my note two years earlier I have to believe this bottle has some flaws.
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10/11/2014 - galewskj wrote: 94 Points
Big Bordeaux VIII : 1990 (Kevin's house): Per the host, Slow-O for 1hr and decanted for 1hr 45 minutes. Drank a small glass over 1 hour. I could smell this all day, it has a rich savory sweet nose. Floral, a litle baking spice, nice red-fruit with cherry standing out. Of course, this is old Bordeaux, leather, funk, earth, cedar.
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10/11/2014 - rocknroller wrote: 93 Points
Big Bordeaux VIII: 1990 Retrospective with Montrose, LMHB, PB, LP, and more (Rocknroller's (Kevin & Vicki's Place)): Very dark red-purple color, subtle clearish 2mm margin. Slow-O for 1hr and decanted for 1hr 45 minutes. Drank 1 glass over 3+ hours. The nose is reticent at first, wood spice, toast, dry leaves, which then evolves to show black currant, kirsch, graphite, and some earth. The palate is full bodied and dense, with lots of anise, cedar, kirsch, black cherry, cassis, spicy, wood, and fuller firmer tannins. This was pretty long and rich. It drinks quite young yet, and I don't believe it has reached peak.
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10/9/2014 - Papies wrote: 94 Points
5 Decades of Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste, with Richard Brazier (Handford Wines, London): Great wine and gives a bit of an insight on how the 96 and 00 will evolve over time.
A lot darker than expected in colour. Intense and open on the nose, complex mix. Rich. On the palate the tannins are still evident but round. Lots of life in this, very complex, long and with many layers. Very very good wine and one to look out for. 94
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9/24/2014 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
Tobacco, Cuban cigar, forest floor, cassis and blackberries pop from the glass. Powerful, classic and refined, in a masculine sense. An hour of air added a lot to the wine. Really coming along nicely, this is now a bit better than th 1982.
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9/24/2014 - DaleW wrote:
Tannic, structured, great fruit, this should be great in time. B+/A-
(blind, I though much younger)
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8/11/2014 - pjaines Likes this wine:
Takes some time to open up but this is classic Paulliac - insert any cliche you want here (cedar, black fruit, spices etc). Still very young a tightly wound up - I've never yet had a 1990 Bordeaux that has truly been ready. Beautiful clarity to the fruit. If you can bare to, then I'd hold them for longer. Otherwise, a long decant is recommended.
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7/30/2014 - RayOB Likes this wine: 95 Points
Drank in Hong Kong
Classic claret beautifully matured, fully open with legs to last quite a few more years. Excellent stuff.
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7/13/2014 - englishman's claret wrote: 92 Points
Tough to assess... I almost don't want to put a score on this one. Tight, even after 4-5 hours of air and a double decant followed by a long open air decant. Kept checking in on this, so I know we didn't miss peak. What's poking through is good Pauillac; blackberry, currant fruit with allspice, oak, and earth. But it's shy. I gather from the community notes that this is either a very shy bottle or, less likely, so faintly corked that it was stripped without showing TCA aromas. Hm.
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7/13/2014 - RockinCabs wrote: 95 Points
Nose: Fantastic plum, cassis, blackberry and spice. Pencil, leather graphite and lilac. This was 100% on point. Palate: deep and precise in the mouth with dense fruit and beautiful nuance. Finish: sweet blackberry, firm tannin, leather and classic pauillac notes.
Side by side with the 82 and the 90 showed better tonight. Both excellent but the 82 was wound tight and just not showing what this 90 could give.
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6/6/2014 - Lord Rayas wrote: 95 Points
David/TY Dinner with Hans, Julian, Bun, Walter and wives (AMC Library): decanted for an hour. didn't really show up in first pour but came to life second glass. aromatic and sweet, yet long and powerful. very good.
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5/18/2014 - amateurwino wrote: 95 Points
Guessed Pauillac, and a very good one. Very complete, beautiful, perfectly resolved wine for me. Guessed this was '82 but '90 doesn't shock me. This is batting above its pay grade. 94-95
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5/18/2014 - salil wrote: 92 Points
Leo's Blind Tasting Group - May '14 edition (Ben's (NYC)): A powerhouse of a Pauillac. A core of ripe red and dark fruit framed by tobacco and more savoury earthy and cedary notes, intense and concentrated on the palate with great length.
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3/31/2014 - rossi.wine wrote: 95 Points
Pretty dark and youthful in the glass, glowing & bright. On the nose dark fruit notes, cassis, sweet, pure, graphite, cedar and spice box, impressive depth. Full bodied and rich, round tannins, complex with great length. Bright acidity on the finish which is contrasting nicely with the wealth of sweet fruit. Great future. 94-95+
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3/29/2014 - Philippe_C wrote: 97 Points
The surprise of the night, as the wine style was just between the Lynch Bages 1990 and Cos d’Estournel 1990, for a fraction of the price… this wine has not yet reached full pleasure maturity and is an incredible
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3/9/2014 - rSyver wrote: 91 Points
Drinking well now, but benefits from air. Classic, long finish. To me, a bit too early for my palate. No rush what so ever.
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1/17/2014 - WKC Likes this wine: 92 Points
Decanted for an hour before it started to show well. Classic Pauillac aromatics and was a decent showing considering the company of 83 LLC, 09 Hommage and 99 Ponsot Clos de la Roche. Enjoyable to drink and the most approachable of all the wines that night.
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12/15/2013 - Rezy13 Likes this wine: 93 Points
Dinner at Woodfire Grill (Buckhead, GA): Deep color with not a lot of bricking, could not tell a difference next to the '95 Cos; nose is full and deep blowing the elixir of Bordeaux, some nice green to go along with the red fruit and earth, chocolate, cigar, and luxurious feel to this, also it was highly drinkable; only bottle blind and I thought '95 Pichon Lalande so this bottle was incredibly youthful.
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12/1/2013 - kevin h wrote: 92 Points
Classic Pauillac. Youthful looking, cassis nose with nice intensity. Blackcurrant and currant flavour, clean and fresh but has a bit of GPL's typical hardness. Fine flavours, ripe tannins. Nice wine but didn't really rise from the glass. Scope for further improvement.
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10/18/2013 - Rezy13 wrote: 90 Points
Sloppy Seconds Mondo Tasting (Bin 75): Very dark almost to the rim; licorice, red fruit, full, obviously a good vintage but this was thinning out, gravel, good but not amazing.
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10/17/2013 - Lord Rayas wrote: 92 Points
drinking beautifully now. can just pop n pour.
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10/12/2013 - FamilyLarsson wrote: 95 Points
En riktigt bra mogen Bordeaux. Se tidigare noteringar
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9/29/2013 - slmckenney wrote:
- Garnet color and has flavours of asparagus, raisin and cloves - Quite tasty but no tannins left whatsoever.
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9/21/2013 - petitblanc wrote:
Fine looking bottle, but showing much more funk than expected, both before and after lots of air, largely reminiscent of urine-sodden wood shavings from a horse stall. Also showing solid structure and faint notes of sweet fruit mingled with green pepper late. Certainly a sub-par bottle, but I won't be seeking out another to sample at current prices. Not scored.
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9/20/2013 - Nutty08 wrote:
HDH '90 vs '00 BDX Comparative Tasting (Chicago, IL - Spiaggia): Hard to be on the same table at Latour, but if you own it you'll be happy. Not as big or concentrated, but a fantastic core of pure red fruits, tobacco leaf and spice. Adds a little mint and flint on the nose. A step below Latour but really good. A-/A
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8/20/2013 - PhN Likes this wine: 93 Points
Great wine. Lots of tannin and fruit. Wonderful aroma. Worrisome was that the cork had nearly leaked through. If corks remain intact I believe the wine will be great until 2018 or so, but keep watch.
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8/1/2013 - Spl232 wrote: 95 Points
Just a stunning bottle of wine. Double decanted and recorked, waited two hours to try and was still tight but approachable. Around hour four this wine was perfect, rich and complex with a two minute finish. This is why I love Bordeaux. Bravo
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6/23/2013 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
Tobacco, cigar box, earth, cassis, blackberry and forest floor scents are all over the place. Concentrated, powerful, and stuffed with ripe, chewy cassis, this classic, Pauillac wine is still young and will continue getting better for the next few decades. The $20 price on release continues paying dividends.
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5/14/2013 - markellen.foodies@gmail.com wrote: 93 Points
DOUBLE BLIND 95+ DINNER @ DEERING BAY YACHT & COUNTRY CLUB (WINE CELLAR @ DEERING BAY YACH & COUNTRY CLUB, MIAMI, FL): Sweet nose of cassis, spring flowers, and wet rocks. Al's wine.
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4/19/2013 - Henrik_christopher wrote:
Her er det mye liv igjen, ut fra frukten skulle man tro dette var ung juice.
Textbook Pauillac, konsentrert og stor lengde. Utvikler seg bare positivt utover kvelden og åpner seg videre opp. Godt med grep og tanniner hele veien, syrlig undertone, balansert. Stor vin!
Drukket til andeconfit på Dr Kneipps.
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3/12/2013 - Yagil wrote: 98 Points
1982-1990-1996 Bordeaux evening (my home): Clearly one of the top Bordeaux ever tasted so far, including 1er GCC, but for a fraction of the price!!!
Nobody expected that this will turn out to such a great wine!
The aromas haunted all the 8 of us for many long minutes.
Classic leather, perfect mature red and black fruits and an old cigarbox filled with quality tobacco.
In the palate a perfect balance of fruit, tannins acid and a fantastic velvety mouthfeeling that made all guest around the table several times simply forget the food and just sitting there. What a big wine!
If you can buy some more, buy it now!
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3/4/2013 - PhN wrote: 96 Points
Wonderful delightful claret! Bottle in very good condition. When opened very tight with very slight brown tint. After an hour hints of a great wine. Went wonderfully with lamb chop, polenta, creamed spinach and dark chocolate for dessert! After two hours a flavorful bordeau with great fruit, tannins, terrior of the region. I think this one is good until at least 2018, but I greatly enjoyed this bottle today.
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2/9/2013 - FamilyLarsson wrote: 95 Points
Mogen fin rökig doft av svarta vinbär, svarta vinbärsblad, läder, multna löv, blyerts. Väldigt fin balans med fortfarande närvarande tanniner och fin syra. Fint mognat och väldigt bra
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2/7/2013 - Ary wrote: 96 Points
Opened 8 hours in advance. Brett, earth, iron, iodine, medicine, tobacco, truffle, wild strawberries and more secondary tones in the wildly expressive nose. The concentrated palate offers fruits as well as some coarse tones. Elegant but in a bold way. Long lingering on. I love this wine that since first tried in 2002 keeps getting better.
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9/27/2012 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
90 Grand Puy Lacoste expresses truffle, cassis, tobacco, cedar, leather and forest floor scents. Still young, this powerful, concentrated, masculine wine offers a big, beefy, juicy mouthful of ripe cabernet fruit. Some tannin remains that needs to be resolved. The wine finishes with cassis and a of hint green pepper which detracted from the otherwise sublime experience. I've had other bottles that did not display green notes that earned a higher score. Still, this is an outstanding example of a traditionally made Pauillac. 94 Pts
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9/10/2012 - johneagle wrote: 92 Points
This is getting very good now. A point or two off because it still has that slight GPL coarseness, but is a delightful drink. Double decanted at 6.30 and continues to come on at 9pm. Needs plenty of air. Tannins a bit green for my taste, and overpower the fruit a little, but I'm being picky - this is a very good glass of claret just approaching readiness. Give it lots of time in a decanter - 3 hours +. I tasted the last glass after 4 hours and this was as good as it is going to get. DO NOT POP AND POUR!
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7/28/2012 - Zweder Likes this wine: 93 Points
Bordeaux 1990 plus some extra's (@ VadM): Beautiful and classical Bordeaux bouquet with cassis, lead pencil, smoke, cedar and luxurious oak as well as a pleasant touch of barnyard. On the palate mature as well with dissolved tannin, still some black fruits, good acidity and pleasant bitterness. A beautiful, elegant and classical Bordeaux. Completely ready now, but no real hurry; it will probably be on this level around 2016, but I don't think it will add in complexity.
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6/5/2012 - nytiger wrote: 94 Points
excellent in a tastin of 9 bordeaux
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5/5/2012 - 3daywinereview.com wrote: 95 Points
Killer Bordeaux Tasting (Kevin's House (Minneapolis)): My second favorite wine of the night. Black olives, tobacco, black olives, gravel, rapsberries and mushrooms. Showing secondary characters and should have a long life ahead. Very long and concentrated finish. Decanted 2 hours. This will improve over time. 95-97.
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4/28/2012 - rocknroller wrote: 96 Points
Big Bordeaux III - Kickin' Ass & Takin' Names: Stunning Wines from 1986, 1990, 1996 + 2002 Cristal (Rocknroller's (Kevin's)): Very dark red color. Noticeably darker than the '90 Barton. Opened and checked, nose was really open, recorked for several hours prior to serving. Decanted for 20 minutes just prior to serving. Nose is open but evolves even further over 15 minutes in the glass. Intense nose of pencil shavings, funk, earth, cedar, black fruits of cassis, black raspberry, markedly floral. The palate is intense, full bodied, rich, cassis, blackberry, plum, loads of sweet tobacco, graphite, lots of earth, mineral. The very long finish shows some spice and round, integrated tannins. Stunning wine. Lots of life left. Considerably better than a very good bottle 6 months ago. My #3 and group #3 WOTN (2+2+2+2+1+1+1=11pts) 96+pts.
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4/19/2012 - dream wrote: 90 Points
A really lovely Bordeaux nose here with notes of roasted nuts, tar, cedar smoke and black fruits.On the palate it's quite balanced and delicious with a nice black fruit profile. Fairly structured for a '90 with some tannins remaining. Finishes with an elegant earthy note with good rather than great complexity. A really nice '90 but I rate it below many of its competitors.
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2/16/2012 - godx wrote: 93 Points
La Commanderie de Bordeaux à Vancouver - Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste Vertical (Bistro Pastis): Decanted 45min prior to serving. Medium red. The nose here rivaled the 82 for the nose of the night with beautiful Bordeaux funk and classic Pauillac notes of cassis, blackcurrants, pencil lead, cedar and after some time in the glass, hints of herbaceous notes. Soft and velvety on the palate with a weightier mouthfeel and firm structure. The fruit here is dense and pure with the perfect amount of ripeness. This is a really complete wine that’s offering a lot of pleasure right now but undoubtedly has many years of development ahead. When this wine hits its 30th birthday I would guess that it will be even better than the ‘82 was tonight. Outstanding. 93+
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1/14/2012 - ucbeau wrote: 95 Points
Tasted this over dinner with a good friend of ours. No decant, a pop 'n pour, not that it mattered. The bouquet is gorgeous, loaded with graphite, cedar, dried black cherry, herbs, and cassis. Despite its age, there is a sense of life and vitality, perhaps an indication of superior quality? It's not often I get to taste Bordeaux that have two decades of experience to them, and perhaps that played into my views on this wine, but it's magnificent. I could taste so many flavors, ranging from cassis, dark dusty notes, dried herbs, tart black cherry, hints of cedar and smoke, and an outstanding mix of black plum and raspberry. The integration was outstanding and the tannic framework, though firm, belied a certain grace. Texture consisted of a single word for me: silk. An amazing wine, one of the best I've tried in the past year or so.
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12/3/2011 - Ary Likes this wine: 96 Points
Bordeaux Left Bank 1989 and 1990 (semi blind) (Restaurant Beddington Amsterdam): Keeps going strong (and held well beside the Lafite 1989). Such a rich wine with cigar tobacco, earth (boers), graphite, iodine and many beautiful fruit tones. Broad palate with great length. Opened 6 hours in advance.
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10/30/2011 - RAD2626 wrote: 96 Points
Decanated for over an hour but still took 45 minutes in the glass to fully open. This is a complicated wonderful wine. Spices - nutmeg - on the huge nose. Lots of berries, cigar and earth in the mouth. Terrific long finish. DId not diminish at all over the three hours it took to consume.
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9/18/2011 - rocknroller wrote: 93 Points
Bordeaux Tasting Highlights at Levain (Levain, Mpls): Dark red color with mild bricking and a 2mm clear meniscus. Very nice nose with lots of graphite, followed by tobacco, cassis that evolves to creme de cassis, earth, mushrooms. The palate has medium-full body, seems slightly thin on the mid palate, but has nice cassis and black cherry flavors and a medium plus finish. This appears mature now.
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9/4/2011 - Chainthroer wrote: 92 Points
Dinner party with friends. Dark setting, so no notes of rim or color intensity. Notes of blackberry, cassis, cedar, leather, tobacco, forest floor. The wine seemed just a bit closed this evening - might have been too cool. Good fruit concentration. A long and appreciable finish.
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7/13/2011 - Lord Rayas wrote: 95 Points
Eric dinner (Eric's home): wonderful nose of leather, truffles, forest floor. some brett, in a nice way. reminds me of Montrose 90 but not as complex and long.
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6/24/2011 - Papies wrote: 95 Points
Requires decanting and the wine is very young still.
We read the note below abt how on decanting the room filled with wine aromas and thoguht of it too much, only to have the same experience while decanting it ourselves.Ha!
Dark red in colour, like a mid 2000 merlot from right bank. Open beautiful nose, with more herby notes less earth and lots of red fruit. Some alchohol on the nose as the wine is on a youthfull phase still. Powerfull, vibrant, dense and layered.
This is a great wine and although a 94-95 for us at the moment giving it another 5yrs to mature this is an easy 97+. We loved it but still we couldnt but feel that we rushed it. Gladly we have some more.
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6/16/2011 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
Truffles, tobacco, blackberry, cassis, earth, molasses and forest floor scents make up the complex perfume. Ful bodied and intense, this young wine is stuffed with ripe cassis, smoke and fresh black cherry. In select vintages, Grand Puy Lacoste produces stunning Bordeaux wine. 1990 is well worth seeking out.
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4/16/2011 - Alexis A wrote: 91 Points
Great color, evolved with orange rims. Nose is also evolved with strong red fruits, smoke and cigarbox. Very smooth in the mouth, well balanced and not too alcoholic or acidic. Very nice wine and ready to drink. Only weakness, having tried a few days ago the 1990 Angelus, is that the GPL lacks a bit in concentration and length. Otherwise, a very nice and ready to drink Pauillac!
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4/16/2011 - KVM wrote: 91 Points
Dark red, brick edge. Leather, cedar, black currant and raw meat, mineral and cough syrup top notes. Black berry, bell pepper. Finish is sweet and long and wonderfully balanced. Slightly spicy.
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2/21/2011 - rbr3 wrote: 96 Points
I gave 96, I could have given 99-100, but i don´t dear concidering what to do with the rest of nice bottles downstairs.
Clearly one of my top three bordeaux´s so far, with Cheval Blanc 1970 and Haut Brion 1982.
But for a fraction of the price!!
What more to expect of a bottle of wine?
The aromas filled the room by the time of decanting, and was competing with the steak of moose in the saucer.
Exclusive leather, perfect mature red and black fruits and an old cigarbox filled with Cohibas.
In the mouth perfect balance of fruit, tannins acid and a fantastic velvety mouthfeeling that made all guest around the table several times simply forget the food and just sitting there. With a big happy smile on their faces.
If you can buy some more, buy it all and drink it every sunday!
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12/11/2010 - Amerique wrote: 93 Points
Still closed after 2 hours of openning. Sweet black cherry fruit with leathery flavors, a little rough on the palate.
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11/28/2010 - rnellans wrote: 94 Points
90 Grand Puy Lacoste - Dark garnet. Beautiful Paulliac nose of lilies, cedar, cassis. Exceptional balance and depth. Lingering sweet finish. This wine has always showed very well.
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11/28/2010 - cct wrote: 96 Points
Deep beautiful cassis, wet bricks, graphite. Beautiful peak Pauillac. Deep, very focused and simultaneously braod on the palate. Great depth without heaviness. Drinking at a beautiful peak right now. Great stuff. A complete wine. 96 pts.
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10/23/2010 - jaga wrote: 96 Points
Another stunning bottle. Classic claret drinking superbly at the moment. Probably won't get much better from here, but boy it doesn't need to. Garnet colored with hints of brown. After 30 mins in the decanter, the tannins were perfectly integrated.
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10/6/2010 - nytiger wrote: 93 Points
wonderful complex nose and flavors, very good body and a long finish
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7/16/2010 - Lord Rayas wrote: 95 Points
Dad's 77th Birthday (Red Room): Lovely opulent nose of earth, truffles, leather and cigar. Rich, fat and powerful.
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6/28/2010 - Jeff Leve wrote: 96 Points
Truffles, soy, smoke, tobacco, dark plums and jammy berries with forest scents pop up the moment the cork leaves the bottle, gaining in intensity as the wine slams into the glass. Rich, full bodied and intense, with long powerful, spice and ripe berry, with hints of jammy plums finish. This will age for at least 2 more decades.
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6/25/2010 - canan wrote: 95 Points
Misc Bordeaux 1990 tasting - Martin: Powerful dark plum fruit in the nose with vanilla and freshly ground coffee. Good intensity.
The dark plum fruit is very intense on the palate and the wine shows a great balance. Elegant but still powerful.
Still very young showing only a little pencil shavings.
Excellent!
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6/25/2010 - Terkel wrote: 96 Points
Bordeaux 1990 - 20 years later (Martins office): Dark center with a slightly browning hue. Classic cabernet nose with blackcurrant, pencil-shavings, cigar box and so on with the added notes of red berries, truffles and herbs. On the palate it is amazing with juicy, well-rounded blackcurrant and plum fruit, pick up on some vanilla sweetness, prunes and truffles on the mid palate and finish. Very intense and delicious, but it presents itself as elegant and majestic.
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6/21/2010 - bon vivant wrote:
Even better than the last bottle in Nov 2008. This one was decanted for about 3 hrs and while the profile was similar still lots of freshness yet with a beautiful smoothness you get from a good 20 yr wine. A pleasure, probably at the peak but would not surprise me if this drank great for more years to come.
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6/6/2010 - mrm27 wrote: 95 Points
Rich, ripe, Cabernet Franc-like green pepper on the nose, fleshy and rich on the palate, with gorgeous sweet fruit balanced by grippy tannic structure. Many, many years of life ahead, needs time to develop complexity as it's very foursquare at the moment. Delicious, though.
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5/15/2010 - Lord Rayas wrote: 94 Points
From magnum. Wonderful nose of spice, leather, farmyard and brett. Reminds me of Montrose 90. A little bit thin in the mouth but still a great drink. At its absolute peak.
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5/5/2010 - wineismylife wrote: 91 Points
Dallas 2nd Wednesday Group - May 2010 (SteveW's house in North Dallas): WIML90-91
Served double blind. Garnet to dark garnet color in the glass, slightly cloudy looking. nose of florals, tobacco and black cherries. Flavors fo black berries and black cherries. Medium acidity, tannins and body. Drink or hold. My guess was its the 1990 Pontet Canet.
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3/22/2010 - petrusncoke wrote: 95 Points
Wow, is this wine something special. Drank for a special occasion, this wine didn't disappoint. Utterly harmonious, elegant and noble, the aromas were not as powerful as I had expected, event after 7 hours in the decanter and the glass, yet present were scents of cassis, tobacco and cedar. On the palate however, were lush, concentrated flavors of lead pencil, tobacco, cedar and dirt underpinned by pretty, fresh cassis fruit. The mid palate flavors gave way to intense flavors of cedar, bacon fat, jasmine, and most notably leather. Everything in this wine is in the right place: the wine is structured, fresh and flavorsome, and because of this balance of fruit, tannin and acidity it has the things it needs to mature, if not at least keep, for the next 15 years or more. Moreover, this wine is so expressive of its Pauillac roots, and seems to embody all that which claret lovers crave. Astounding!
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12/5/2009 - ikkaariainen wrote: 94 Points
Two bottles drank recently, most recent one at last month's Hickory Wine Club tasting as part of an aged bdx flight. This wine is seriously good, in a great drinking window, very classic Pauillac and with enough fruit and tannins left for at least 5-10 more years of cellaring. Dark tawny color, bricking on edges, very smooth / balanced / complex with great lingering aftertaste. Both recently consumed bottles decanted 2-4 hours and this wine still needs it. Heavy initial barnyard funk blew off quickly, rich nose of sweet dark cherry, tobacco and hint of hay, primary flavors of still plenty of dark fruit, burnt oak, cassis, tobacco box, terroir and later on palate notes of leather and tar developed. Highly recommend this wine if you can find it, obviously much too expensive to be any kind of a reasonable QPR but this is one of those wines in it's current drinking window that goes to show really how good an aged bdx can be and what all the fuss is about.
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9/23/2009 - keelegl wrote: 94 Points
Really pretty nose of cassis, crushed berries and some leather/cigar type aromas. Really nice fruit on the palate with wonderful balance and a long finish. Still plenty of structure, but drinking nicely right now.
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8/27/2009 - Ary wrote: 97 Points
At Frits house, tasted blind, opened 6 hours before tasting. Colour brownish on the rim. Superb wine full of layers with fruit, cherries, currents, tobacco, pencil lead and tobacco. Elegant but in a 'bold' way. Well balanced. The nose is very powerful, sweet and intense. Many layers of ripe red fruit. Great classic Pauillac!
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8/24/2009 - rralls wrote: 94 Points
Notes from memory:
This wine is right in its wheelhouse and is really humming. Can perhaps keep another 10 years, but I don't see it getting any better than its current showing. Classis bordeaux aromas and pure vibrant fruit. A little lacking on the finish in terms of quality and length, like that of its competition tonight in the '86 Margaux, but just pickiung at nits here.
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8/4/2009 - reichken wrote: 92 Points
Half Bottle Offline- lightening around the rim, a touch of fruit left and then mainly eucalyptus on the nose. in the mouth a well balanced dry red with a touch of leathery wood to it. med long. good example of 15 year old claret from half
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7/3/2009 - Russell Faulkner wrote: 92 Points
Well rounded, a well mannered teenager
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6/13/2009 - KeithAkers wrote: 93 Points
judgment of chicago-California Cabs vs Bordeaux (Chicago IL, Ward's): nose: much more powerful then the earlier bottle. Good depth and well layered tones of pencil lead, leather, dark red cherries, black currants, and some sour red fruits. Very pungent and holds some real good balance to go with the power behind it
taste: excellent full body with good tannins and well balanced tones of pencil lead, leather, dark red cherries, sour red fruits and a bit of tobacco
overall: miles better then the bottle that was in the blind line up. This performed great right out of the box and it would've been nice to get more of a shot at it as it just really came to play
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6/13/2009 - KeithAkers wrote: 90 Points
judgment of chicago-California Cabs vs Bordeaux (Chicago IL, Ward's): nose: real nice perfumed nose with roasted herbs, black currants, red currants, red cherries, cedar, and some pipe tobacco. Good balance and nice depth with a bit of an underlying ripeness to the nose
taste: medium feel that comes off as a bit hollow. Good tones of roasted herbs, black currants, red cherries and cedar, but there is a lacking that detracts a bit on this
overall: really nice nose, but it isn't followed through on the palate. Definitely disappointing when revealed
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4/15/2009 - rnellans wrote: 93 Points
Big, big nose of lead pencil, lilies, tobacco, cherries and garigue. So smooth, balanced, rich on palate with long, long finish. I wish I had more, as it has a lot of life left.
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1/24/2009 - rnellans wrote: 93 Points
Wine of the night. Decanted for 2 hours. Typical Pauillac nose of lead pencil and lilies. Some spice and tobacco. Nice weight on the palate. Rich, very well balanced with integrated tannins. Long on the finish
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11/15/2008 - bon vivant wrote: 95 Points
Served with Prime rib roast on the green egg. This bottle did not disappoint. A quick 45 min decant as it had to be put into service as an add on. Strong dark fruit aromatics: Black cherry, plum and cedar were all here as well as garigue,tobacco and dry leafs dusty touch. It's all framed very nicely with good balance and a nice structure to the lingering finish. Kept getting darker and more complex as we drank it until it was all gone.....
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10/24/2008 - jordanj wrote: 89 Points
Casual Dinner at Le Titi -for an out of towner (Le titi de Paris): This is one of those wines that just screams classic Bordeaux. Unfortunately this one didn’t scream great Bordeaux. Typical Pauillac profile but was just a bit thin. Perhaps this was just an off –bottle as it was awkward.
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10/24/2008 - KeithAkers wrote: 93 Points
John Chapman meets the three Headed Monster (Le Titi Paris(Arlington Heights, IL)): nose: sweet, rich, and quintessentially pauillac nose filled with red currants, black cherries, spice box, pencil lead, and pipe tobacco round it out. Very pungent and it just flows from the glass into your nose with deft balance
taste: at first this was a bit thin, but it put on more weight after an hour or so(this had been decanted for an hour before dinner) with sweet and rich backdrop providing tones of red currants, black cherries, sweet spice box notes, pencil shavings, and bits of cedar. Beautiful balance and medium feel on the palate with a youthful verve to it
overall: A classic GPL and showing off the 90 vintage very well. Great richness with a sweet depth to it. This is one that needed the air to strut its stuff and show off why its such a big boy. There is still a youthfulness to it and its very pungent. Tannins are starting to resolve and it posseses a long black cherry finish
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6/26/2008 - losvinhos wrote: 93 Points
Excepcional
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6/24/2008 - NAA2586 wrote: 93 Points
Very nice, well balanced wine. Surprisingly a medium body, but with classic bordeaux characteristics.
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4/12/2008 - Eric wrote:
Steaks and Bordeaux on a Saturday night (Seattle, WA): A nightcap as dinner wound down. A strong dose of leather and Brett, nice tobacco, ripe fruit. This bottle was more dominated by Brett than I recall from past examples, but as it aired the fruit became more prominent. Just downright delicious Bordeaux from a very ripe vintage.
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2/10/2008 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
I don't care how cheap it used to be. Those days are gone and even at today's prices, for a wine of this quality, it's worth the bucks. To me, when you get down to it, that is the best descriptor you can read. Would you buy more? I would. The rich, ripe, beautiful cassis laden wine is incredibly concentrated. Big, and broad shouldered, this is very well balanced and while not yet fully mature, can be enjoyed today. If you have only a few bottles, you can wait. It's not going anywhere. In fact, I expect it will drink well for at least another 25-30 years if well stored.
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6/28/2007 - JHWinick wrote:
Fantastic!! 96+
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3/20/2007 - bsherwin wrote:
Big Dinner with some Big Wines (Little Giant): I sort of felt that this got lost in the shuffle a bit, but I do love this wine. It's classic 1990 Pauillac with a gorgeous, velvety mouthfeel and luscious, sweet, intense black fruit that is nicely layered. It showed a little brett and since pours were real small it didn't flash its brilliance right away. With patience it showed great elegance and power, although this isn't the best bottle I've had. This is wide open and ready to roll.
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1/6/2007 - pgordon62 wrote: 95 Points
Exceptional nose of plum and raspberry, rose petal, hot rocks, old saddle leather and a touch of horse stable. Excellent weight on the smooth palate with just a kiss of tannin to give texture. Delicious flavors of dark fruits, licorice and a chalky earth note. Superb and at peak for me.
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11/19/2006 - Roberto_1 wrote:
This bottle was very good but not great like a bottle I had last week. It showed somewhat austere with some pencil shavings and earth on the nose and tighter, leaner fruit and somewhat dry tannins on the finish. It reminded me of a St. Estephe. A recent bottle from the same case was rich ripe and dense behaving more like a Pomerol.
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10/12/2006 - bsherwin wrote:
Sweet 16 Party for our Bordeaux (Triomphe): Here is a classic wine, combining power and finesse, both reaching for the sky with its explosive, opulent fruit and rooted in the earth with its classic nuances of Pauillac. It possesses a gorgeous, velvety mouthfeel and luscious, jammy black fruit that is both intense and layered. I can't put it better than Jeff who exclaimed that this was "everything 1990 for me."
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9/10/2006 - bevort wrote: flawed
corked
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8/29/2006 - TampaDan wrote: 94 Points
I've had this wine twice in the last three years, and both times it has seemed incredibly closed and hard, more like a wine from the 50's than the 90's. I've got two left, and don't plan on opening another until at least after 2010.
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3/29/2006 - Alpine wrote: 95 Points
The clear surprise of the night, easily holding is own with the big boys and knocking Latour off it perch in this flight side by side. Tar and extracted flavors of cedar and leather…fabulous nose, exactly what you think a great Bordeaux nose should be. Very long with outstanding palate persistence and lift that really filled the mouth.
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11/18/2005 - Rani wrote:
Dinner with the Nygaards (Rotisserie Jules, South Kensington, London): The bottle was opened just before pouring, and I took the first pour - for a few precious seconds I could smell nice blackcurrant fruit, but then it became apparent that this was horribly CORKED!
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9/24/2005 - SacredCow wrote: flawed
Corked.
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6/15/2005 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
Cassis, wood and spice components add to the massive, classy, full bodied wine. But, don’t be fooled by it size, it maintains perfect balance.
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4/10/2005 - G SQUARED wrote: 93 Points
Dinner at Mise en Place with Jeff, Penn and Jim P. Extremely seductive wine. Loads of smoke and black fruits. Very round in the mouth with enough tannic structure to last a lot longer. I actually would put this away for a few more years as I think there is much more to come from this wine.
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3/17/2005 - Eric wrote: 94 Points
Mmm, this is a fantastic wine that I have enjoyed a few times. This bottle took about 4 hours to come around and seemed a bit closed at first, but eventually it yielded ripe, roasted plums, a whiff of tobacco, smoke, cedar, roasted nuts, dusty minerals and huge volumes of roasted coffee beans. The palate was fairly approachable throughout and continued to gain weight the longer the wine was open. Initially leathery, this was dripping in minerals, sweet yet elegant black fruit, and more roasted notes. The finish shows loads of still young but sweet tannins with a hint of black cherry. Mmm, this bottle in particular has (well, had) a long time ahead of it.
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2/15/2005 - MRichman wrote:
Grand Puy Lacoste Vertical (Inside, NYC): Big, powerful, sweet, round. Smooth, clear, clean. Silky.
A
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2/5/2005 - TheGreenFrog wrote:
The Bigfoot of big wines - leaving big tracks for followers of the grape - big fruit, big fat front, great pile of rotting sugar beet, most wonderful wine that opens with time from the bottle.
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7/20/2004 - The Wine Bum wrote:
We were all slightly disappointed by the 1990, it certainly wasn't the blockbuster we were expecting. Its probably just shutting down. But the hints of things to come were there, deep dark colour, immature nose of iron and blackcuurant, on the palate tightly wound ripe spicy fruit that seemed to want to burst out and hard but juicy tannins. It just seemed a little shy and certainly wasn't the brash precocious thing I remebered. I would put it away for a bit longer.
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5/28/2004 - Eric wrote: 95 Points
Dinner with Staenberg at Lampreia (Seattle, WA, USA): Oh my goodness, what a gorgeous bottle! This was part of a recent purchase from a cellar sale in Seattle. Despite the fact that the fill was pretty far down the neck, the cork was nearly perfect with not a hint of staining. The wine was unreal from the get-go with roasted black fruits, scorched earth, tobacco, and barnyard. It was both stern and brooding at the same time that it was forward and fruitful. This was just so flamboyant, showy and delicious, and it continues to show me just how amazing a nice 1990 Bordeaux can be.
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6/22/2003 - Eric wrote: 94 Points
Seattle Tasting Group does 1990 Bordeaux (Woodinville, WA, USA): Group average is 92.25 points, #3 WOTN. My bottle. A nose of smoky fennel with a variety of herbal notes. This has an amazing body, intense, vibrant, packed with glycerin, powerful tannins, gaining sweetness in the glass. The finish is gorgeous, lengthy, and powerful.
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2/26/2000 - MikeATL Likes this wine:
I met my parents for dinner tonight, and noticed the 1990 Grand-Puy-Lacoste on the list at a reasonable price, so I decided we needed to try it, particularly since I haven't had this wine in about 5 years. I was reminded of why I love Bordeaux, particularly great wines from Pauillac and St.-Julien. One whiff told the story, this is classic Bordeaux, sweet, pure cassis, delicately spiced with leathery, earthy tones and a lovely hint of violets. Initially a bit shy, only revealing its depths on the finish behind a veil of tannin, time and air gave us enough familiarity that it decided to relax and converse. Remarkably sweet, but with plenty of the nuance and structure that stop it from being cloying, by the end of the evening it was drinking superbly. Unfortunately, the bottle was empty before I was ready for our relationship to end, as so often happens. The wine should improve for several more years, but if you decant it an hour or two before dinner, you won't be disappointed.
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