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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
Southeast of the Mondot hill, overlooking the town of St. Emilion lies Chateau Troplong Mondot. Named for its location and its former proprietor, Gerus Troplong, this estate has been home to viticulture since 1745. Its 33 hectare vineyard is planted to 90% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. "Cold," late-ripening soils produce one of the most dramatic wines of the appellation: an exotic, flashy, modern Saint-Emilion.
While it possesses more than enough stuffing and structure for extended cellaring, the wine's depth of fruit and supple tannins rarely get in the way of early drinkability. The Valette family, owners of Chateau Troplong Mondot, oversee production of 8000 cases of the Grand Vin each year, in addition to 2-3,000 cases of the second wine, called simply, Mondot.
Wine Information
A hailed vintage together with 1989. They were very similar but the hot period that hit in 1989 on July was in 1990 on August.
This affected on lower acidity levels in grapes on 1990 vintage. The wines are rounder and seem to mature more rapidly than 1989 vintage.
Vuosikerta 1990
Early, uniform flowering, a hot but unspectacular summer and an exceptionally hot period at the end of August 1990 and the first half of September. It was this heat that allowed the record harvest not only to fully ripen, but also to concentrate the fruit. Harvesting began on September 14 and was completed before the start of heavy rains on October 2. Another reason for the success of the vintage was that most châteaux had invested in their cellars and were able to work with such a large and hot harvest. It was now possible to control fermentation temperatures better than in previous warm vintages, such as 1947. The grapes produced wines with such a high level of natural alcohol that chaptalization became unnecessary. They showed deep color, high and unusually sweet tannin levels and better acidity than expected, as well as great concentration of fruit. The hype was great, particularly thanks to the advent of new wine magazines - this was the vintage that cemented Robert Parker's reputation. Prices rose quickly and haven't looked back since. I remember that all Premiers Crus (including Pétrus) were offered to end consumers for around 50 euros en primeur in 1983.
The scene of the arrival of the 1990 vintage was quite different. There was a surplus of very good to great wine on the market – for the first time, there was talk of three great vintages in succession. This led most châteaux to drop their prices by around 20% from their 1989 prices, even though the quality was exceptional. There had been a steady increase in prices during the 1980s, but they had now more or less returned to the opening prices of the 1982s. This was again a record harvest, but as most châteaux had already introduced a "second wine" and were more selective regarding quality, there was actually less wine bottled under the name "Grand Vin" than in 1982.
We have been following these two vintages since they were young, as they were both precocious and easy to drink from the start. The best wines from both vintages are spectacular, but the overall quality is much higher in 1990. Here, the wines have been equally successful on both sides of the river, and even the small châteaux have produced something special. We always found most Right Bank 1982s to be overly alcoholic and lacking in structure; Indeed, many age quickly.