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Wine Spectator : Note : 93
Outstanding. Dark ruby color, with gorgeous aromas of tobacco, chocolate, berry and grilled meat. Full-bodied and very concentrated, with wonderfully velvety tannins and a long, long, decadent finish. Superb.--1990 Bordeaux retrospective. Best from 2005 through 2015. 5,000 cases made.
The Wine Advocate : Fev.1993 note : 90
The 1990 is shaping up as the finest effort in decades from this well-known producer. It reveals an impressively deep black/ruby color, and a dramatic nose of black fruits, smoke, roasted nuts, flowers, and herbs. Medium to full-bodied, with a succulent texture and impressive concentration, this tannic and structured Clos Fourtet has a heady, concentrated, multi-dimensional finish. Bravo! Anticipated maturity: 1994-2010.
Jun.1992 - 87-88
This wine is shaping up as the best effort yet from this well-known, but rarely spectacular producer. The 1990 reveals an impressively deep black/ruby color, a rich nose of black fruits, flowers, and herbs, medium to full-bodied, concentrated flavors, more tannin and structure than is normally found in Clos Fourtet, and a heady, concentrated, multi-dimensional finish. Anticipated maturity: 1995-2010.
Wine Description
The Story
Clos Fourtet enjoys an ideal setting, with its 47 acres of walled vineyard atop a limestone-based plateau. Clos Fourtet was sold in 2001 by the the Lurton family for just under £42 million to the Cuvelier family. By lowering yields, encouraging malolactic fermentation in stainless-steel tanks and employing less new oak, Clos Fourtet shows greater precision.
Wine Information
Weather conditions :This was a hot year with lovely, fine, sunny weather.
The high summer temperatures were beneficial for the grapes Drought conditionsstarted to set in, but the vines dug down into their reserves and gave us an outstanding wine.
Growing season :
A very rainy April, then very good weather conditions for the flowering.
July and August had very little rainfall and were very hot, as was September. This was a hot weather vintage. The average temperature was 2°C above that of the previous 30 years.
Vinification :
In stainless steel vats with breaking-up of the cap of skins through délestage (rack and return) over wooden planks in the vat. The vatting period was 25 to 30 days followed by a traditional ageing in 100% new barrels with a racking every 3 months. Fining in vats at the end of the ageing, then bottling.
Tasting notes :
The colour is showing some age with an orangey-brown tone.
Lots of roasted coffee beans on the nose with figs and a touch of chocolate.
On the palate, the attack is round, developing with volume but a little short in the finish. Typical of a hot climate wine.
Vintage 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.