I’ve been fortunate enough to have had almost all of the top 1990s at least several times, and some more than that. Margaux would be my pick on the Left Bank, with Haut Brion as a sleeper. Latour is great but still young, as is LLC, and Lafite is great but I’ve never found it exciting. Mouton is a decent wine, which is very much damning with faint praise.
I would never, ever, under any circumstances buy a bottle of 1990 Montrose. There are too many great wines in the vintage to risk money on it; the bottle variation is vast and at this point I’ve had more bottles that were truly bad than great, and far more disappointments than satisfying bottles.
Pichon Baron, Lynch Bages, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Leoville-Poyferre, and La Mission HB are among many other excellent wines from the vintage. Pape Clement is sneaky good with great Graves character that some more recent vintages lack.
On the Right Bank, Cheval Blanc is my clear winner, with L’Evangile and Beausejour-Duffau as runners up. Trotanoy, La Conseillante, and Clinet are impressive as well. L’Angelus doesn’t ring my bell to the same degree it seems to for many others.
All good advice from a variety of people with different palates. But there is no substitute for you tasting the wines yourself. As you live in NY, you should be able to find plenty of people who would be interested in getting together and tasting a dozen wines. Plenty of BYO restaurants to choose from.
Go to the offline planner, and see what kind of interest you can generate. You can either buy the wines and share the cost, or ask everyone to bring a bottle. Do it as a blind tasting, so you have no preconceived ideas. And I think you will have a lot of fun, and you will make new friends.
It’s my favorite vintage, and its pretty hard to go wrong with anything you pick.
You probably can still find for ~$150 or so the Figeac, Latour a Pomerol, or Magdelaine which are some of the better wines the estates have produced in a long time.
Even the smaller wines are still often very tasty e.g. I had a 1990 Moulin Rouge a few months ago that was lovely.
So many choices, but the one I really love- the one that makes me smile, the one I could enjoy harmoniously with a good meal over and over again; not the greatest- but the one I love most,
1990 Pichon Baron
Greatest might be Lafleur- ask me again in 10 years.
Edit- I should note that 1990 has a “most intriguing” entry worth considering- 1990 Mouton. That wine was a mess at release. It will never reach the heights of the vintage, but it has improved and developed in some wonderful ways over the years. I have at least 7 TNs for it- the most of any wine ever- purely because it has been fascinating to watch.
Haut Brion, La Mission Haut Brion, Chateau Margaux and Cheval Blanc. All fantastic.
The expensive ones:
Leoville Las Cases, Pichon Baron, Lynch Bages, Grand Puy Lacoste, Leoville Poyferre, Angelus, La Conseillante, Clinet are all superb.
Some hidden gems:
Marquis de Terme, Haut Marbuzet, La Lagune, Meyney, Phelan Segur. Very, very good.
Have in mind that the wines are 28 years old now and good storing is essential. Bottle variation will play a role as well. That’s always tricky with wines older than 20 years.
I would avoid PLL because this wine is not up to the standard of the vintage. Ans Montrose which can be amongst the best wines of the vintage has a lot of bottle variation. The poor ones are almost impossible to drink for me due to tons of brett.
So far, I’ll go with Latour, LLC and La Conseillante in need particular order. I had Cheval Blanc once and it didn’t slay me but I plan to open one in a couple weeks so I hope to be turned then.
I had a 1990 Meyney on the same table as the Latour a couple summers ago and I was amazed at how good it was. That wine was nothing special when it was young but the last bottle we had could stand up to just about anything. If I’m spending my own cash, I’ll probably buy the Meyney.
Chateau Margaux is my favorite wine from 1990 and I’ve had almost all of them many times with the exception of Petrus, Le Pin, and maybe a couple others. If you want to go cheaper then I recommend La Conseillante or Pichon Baron.
Having tried pretty much all of them the best 1990 I’ve tried is Le Pin, which showed a clean pair of heels to Petrus side by side a few years ago. Neither are remotely affordable so on the right bank I would opt for La Conseillante, which has been drinking beautifully for 20 years, or Figeac, which is still on the upslope. Pavie is very good too in 1990.
The vintage was a hot one and on the left bank Ch. Margaux may well turn out to be the best wine but is not really ready yet and in my opinion and Latour is a better bet for current drinking. Leoville-Lascases is a big favourite but I find it atypically easy, and I don’t want my LLC to be a crowd pleaser. Leoville-Barton is in my opinion a better - and brilliant - wine in 1990. That would be my choice if I was looking today.
So many good choices. I dont think I saw Gruaud larose, which is one of my faves and won’t break the bank. It will not disappoint. Also Leoville Poyferre - same. 1990 Rausan Segla is still drinking very nicely and also will not break the bank. Lastly, for something different, 1990 L’Angelus is a really lovely wine. All will perform well for you, for sure. Of course those who have recommended Margaux and others are not steering you wrong. those are more obvious choices.
Good to know. I drank a bunch of these years ago, but thought they were showing age compared to '86 and '89, might have just been storage/shipping.
I love '90 Margaux and Haut Brion, but on my budget more likely to look for Pape-Clement (esp. as you said finesse over power), Poyferre, P-Baron, Magdelaine, or L’Evangile (or Conseillante for a splurge).
For ~$100 at auction:
1990 Lagrange, needs some decanter time.
1990 Sociando
1990 Magdelaine
1990 Leoville Barton (got it for $115 all in last year)
1990 Louviere (more like $65)
Wow, so many fantastic responses! I’m excited to go ferret out some of these bottles (and of course taste them). I’ll report back on what I end up getting. Thanks for sharing all the wisdom!