Chateau Margaux 1990 750ml
The 1990 Chateau Margaux is in its prime, offering a stunning bouquet of blackberries, cassis, cedar, and subtle hints of licorice and vanilla. Full-bodied and beautifully balanced, this wine is deep, complex, and velvety with a vibrant core of ripe fruit. With decades of longevity ahead, it remains a magnificent example of Margaux’s charm, showing extraordinary depth and elegance.
The Wine Advocate | RP 100
Published: Feb 28, 2022
Drink: 2015-2050
The 1990 Château Margaux is really beginning to hit its stride at age 31, soaring from the glass with aromas of blackberries and cassis mingled with notions of licorice, cedar and violets, framed by subtle hints of vanilla and spice. Full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, it's seamless and complete, its velvety tannins and ripe acids entirely cloaked in a lavish but vibrant core of fruit. This is an especially dramatic, fleshy rendition of Margaux, yet it remains impeccably balanced and has decades of longevity ahead of it.
Decanter | D 97
Published: Jul 19, 2023
Drink: 2023-2070
This is a great wine and, like all the greats, it is always changing. In some recent showings it has been effusively plump and energetic, here it was more restrained and mineral than I had remembered. It is still profound, however, and with a bit of time in the glass it opens up to show extraordinary depth. There are some first hints of maturity and a subtle iodine note on the finish, but it is exquisite throughout and should continue to improve for years to come.
Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 12.50%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 3% Cabernet Franc 87% Cabernet Sauvignon 10% Merlot
Jancisrobinson.com | JR 18
Published: Jul 28, 2016
Very deep flavoured and concentrated with a hint of yeast extract (Marmite). Bold, dark and savoury with some sweetness although the sweet aspects of this wine were not emphasised by the fact that it was served immediately after a Rousseau Clos St-Jacques 1999. Not a wine to turn down.
Chateau-margaux.com
1990 Vintage
The harvest lasted almost a month, as the Cabernets ripened much later than the Merlot. We even interrupted the picking for 10 days at the end of September to let the Cabernet finish ripening. Luck was on our side, as the weather was exceptionally good. 1990 was the third in a run of very fine vintages, with 1988 and 1989. After the classic 1988 and the rich, opulent 1989, the 1990 immediately caused great excitement with its charm and great finesse. It is hard to believe that two years with quite similar vine growing conditions produced two wines with such different characteristics! But maybe these conditions were not as similar as they appeared. Who knows what influence a few days' heatwave may have, or what an apparently unwelcome shower or a lengthy period of drought can do? The wines of the 1990 vintage, whether Merlot, Cabernets or Petit Verdot, were immediately outstandingly attractive, rich and tender, tight-grained but soft, with enticing fruit flavors. Today, all the aromas and flavors already mingle sweetly together into this wine, whose perfect harmony conceals a power comparable with 1989. It is enjoyable now, as it was, in fact, shortly after its bottling. It will surely continue to be so over the next twenty or thirty years. What more can we ask? (October 2018)