Tasting Notes
Vinous – 93+
The 1990 Leoville Las Cases can be a fabulous wine, although like others there is variation. This has a refined and delineated bouquet with more black fruit compared directly with the Poyferre, cedar and iris flower, scents of Earl Grey emerging with time. I admire the focus and it coheres beautifully in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with silky tannins (atypically for this Growth), impressive weight and grip, with a grippy finish (typical for this Growth). This coheres wonderfully in the glass, indicating that it could have improved further with a longer decant. Tasted single blind at the 1990 Bordeaux dinner at Medlar.
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2050
Robert Parker – 95
The Chateau Leoville Las-Cases 1990 continues to be a monumental wine, one of the finest of that era. Tasted blind at a private dinner, it retains that misleading, Pauillac bouquet with great intensity, the secondary aromas swarminga rolled tobacco, undergrowth, graphite and Provencal herbs. The palate is beautifully balanced with melted, autumnal, tertiary fruit and great weight towards the persistent finish. It has a dimension and a breeding that puts the 1989 in the shade. Wonderful. Tasted April 2012.
