x
  • Country ranking ?

    228
  • Producer ranking ?

    12
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2035
  • Food Pairing

    Pork Crown Roast

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1982 versus 1990 Bordeaux

When you receive an invitation to a comparative tasting of all Premier Crus from the two great vintages of 1982 and 1990, you drop everything and clear your diary. 1982 and 1990 represent the beginning and end of perhaps the greatest era in the history of Bordeaux. During these nine years there were only two vintages that could be seen as disappointments: 1984 and 1987. It could rightly be stated that the period from 1945 to 1953 produced similarly great wines; this is true for the top wines, but the overall quality reached new heights during the 1980s.

1982 was a milestone for the Bordeaux trade, coming as it did after the difficult decade of the 1970s, which was marked by the Bordeaux crisis, and the ensuing collapse of the 1972 bubble, the oil crisis and rapid inflation. On top of this there were a series of disappointing vintages.The financial markets had stabilised by the time the 1982 wines were offered in the spring of 1983, and by this time there was a large new group of potential wine buyers. There had been an influx of new magazines about wine and good living, and the public was ready to spend money. The American Dollar was high against a weak French Franc and, most of all, the wines were spectacular.

There were several reasons for this.

An early, even flowering, a warm but unspectacular summer and an exceptionally hot period during the end of August and the first half of September. It was this heat that made it possible for the record harvest to not only to fully ripen, but also to concentrate the fruit.  The harvest started on September 14 and was finished before heavy rains commenced 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 such a large and hot harvest. It was now possible to control the fermentation temperatures better than in earlier hot vintages, such as 1947. The grapes produced wines with such high natural alcohol that chaptalization became unnecessary. They showed deep colour, high and unusually soft tannin levels and a better acidity than first thought, as well as great fruit concentration. The media hype was great, particularly thanks to the advent of new wine magazines - this was the vintage that cemented Robert Parker’s reputation. The prices rose rapidly and have not looked back since. I remember all Premier Crus (including Pétrus) being offered to end consumers for around 50 euros en-primeur in 1983.

The scene when the 1990 vintage came along 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 following one another. This lead to most châteaux lowering their prices by about 20 per cent compared to their 1989 prices, even though the quality was outstanding. There had been a steady increase in prices during the 1980s, but they were now more or less back to the opening prices of the 1982s. It was again a record harvest, but because most châteaux had by now introduced a ‘second wine’ and due to the fact they were more selective with regards to quality, there was actually less wine being bottled as ‘Grand Vin’ than in 1982.

We have been following both these vintages from a comparatively early age, as they were both precocious and easy to drink from the start. The top wines from both vintages are spectacular, but the overall quality is much higher in 1990. Here the wines were equally successful on both sides of the river, and even minor châteaux produced something special. We have always found most 1982s from the right bank to be too alcoholic and lacking in structure; indeed many are now ageing rapidly.

So, which vintage would claim victory?

It was easy in the case of Château Mouton Rothschild to pick the winner, given their 1990 has always been the disappointment of the vintage. It is now maturing rapidly and should be drunk or, even better, sold to someone who only cares for the name on the label. The 1982, on the other hand, was always seen as one of the stars of the vintage. Deep coloured with a great concentration of up-front fruit. Good, fresh acidity and a long finish. The only thing that worries me a little is the massive amount of tannins still present.

The 1990 Château Lafite Rothschild is a lovely and charming wine, full of warmth and style. A classic, elegant Lafite. It is ready to drink now and will bring pleasure for some time to come. The 1982 Lafite is ‘The Superstar’ in the eyes of the Chinese and this has led to the wine reaching new record prices at every auction in Hong Kong and beyond. The wine is very good – more concentrated than the 1990 and still very youthful.  We would call this a draw.

1990 Château Haut Brion is one of our favourite wines – a heady nose of tobacco, spices and leather. Lovely, soft fruit and ready to drink now, but don’t be fooled – this will age forever, just like the 1959 and 1961 Haut Brions. The 1982 Haut Brion is also a beautiful, charming wine, offering great drinking pleasure, but it does not quite have the exotic charm of the 1990. 

Drink soon as we don’t see it improving with age. Victory for 1990.

The bottle of 1990 Château Margaux was not a good bottle; the wine had a mature colour and lacked the usual structure and freshness. This is normally a good, soft wine, so we assume that this bottle had been stored under conditions that were too warm. The 1982 was also now quite mature with soft fruit and needs drinking soon. In this case it is a win for the 1982, although normally we would call it a draw.

Château Latour is usually the wine that needs the longest of all the Premier Crus to show its true class. 1990 was unusually soft and not at all typical of a Latour at an early age. It is a very good wine with soft tannins and great balance. Château Latour produced, for me, the greatest of all 1982s. A fantastic, mind-blowing wine, which combined the classic Pauillac style and backbone with spectacularly concentrated and sensuous fruit. It was joy to drink now and will continue to be so for the next hundred years. Another win for 1982.

Both 1990 and 1982 Château Ausone showed mature colour, nose and fruit.Both were quite pleasant to drink but not really up to Premier Cru standard in either vintage. A draw.

We have often given the 1990 Château Cheval Blanc a perfect score in blind tastings, as this is one of the most hedonistic wines we have ever had the pleasure to drink. We have compared it to Sophia Loren in the 1960s – soft, round, voluptuous, sexy and not a hard edge anywhere in sight. This is the uncrowned successor to Cheval Blanc’s legendary 1947. 

We have, on the other hand, never quite understood the constant raving about Cheval Blanc’s 1982. A very overrated wine for us – too alcoholic and overripe. In fact, it is always lacking the structure necessary to be really good. Not bad, but certainly nowhere as good as its reputation. A clear victory for 1990.

1990 Château Pétrus is a fabulous monument of a wine. Indeed, it displays the deepest colour of all. Still quite closed, but a giant waiting to come out and blow us all away. Very, very long finish. A great wine! The 1982 Pétrus is a wine with a fantastic reputation that, similar to the Cheval Blanc, has never really impressed me. Soft, mature and attractive but lacking the structure of a great wine. Another clear victory for 1990.

The luncheon was rounded off in style with Château d'Yquem from both vintages. 1982 was a difficult vintage for Sauternes, being caught as it did by the copious rains of October. Lightweight and really not very good. The 1990 is an opulent, soft and forward Yquem. Attractive and ready to drink now. 1990 prevails again.

All in all a wonderful afternoon with marvellous wines where, in our eyes, this time 1990 showed itself to be the more complete vintage.

by Tb

 

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The Story

Since the 17th Century, the first wine of Château Margaux has been recognised as being one of the greatest wines in the entire world. It owes its unique qualities to the genius of its terroir as well as to the passionate work of a succession of generations. It’s a remarkable wine that comes from a combination of characteristics that are only rarely found: finesse, elegance, complexity, density, intensity, length and freshness. Although its tannic concentration may be exceptional, it’s rare to detect astringency.  

The great vintages are distinguished by their formidable ability to move us. The lesser vintages give pleasure to wise enthusiasts. They offer the advantage of evolving very rapidly and, reveal, after a few years, instead of power, this subtlety that is the prerogative of great terroirs.  Château Margaux has an extraordinary ability to evolve. Over the years, it has developed a finesse, an aromatic complexity and a remarkable presence on the palate.

 

Château Margaux has sought to achieve excellence in its wines for over 400 years now through painstaking and necessarily long studies of its terroir, through a constant desire to learn and innovate, by remaining sensitive to demanding markets, and above all through a passionate commitment that has been shared by the families that have succeeded each other at the estate. At the end of the 17th century, it became part of the nascent elite “First Growths” – long before being established officially by the Classification of 1855. Since then, Château Margaux has known fame and fortune, seeing by experience how ephemeral both are.

The estate has 200 acres under vine. Each plot and each variety are treated differently from pruning throughout the growing season. Chateau Margaux’ goal is to nurture and maintain vines for as long as possible, as they believe vines need to reach 20 years of age to produce great wine. The estate is constantly trying to understand through experimentation how to improve soil health and fruit quality. Today, no insecticides are used, there is an important balance of healthy insects to counter pests, and any number of experiments with ploughing, organic farming, and biodynamic applications are ongoing. A final key point to note, Margaux has for the last 30+ years had among the lowest yields in the Medoc.

The wine was aged for 15 months, in 10% new oak and 90% second use barrels. Because of the particularities of the vintage, Cabernet Sauvignon made up an extremely high 88% of the blend, with Merlot only 12% of the blend. Importantly, the wine is held in bottle until ready to drink, which may not mean that vintages are released sequentially.

 

 

 

 

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Wine Information

The 1990 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.

Weather
After a mild winter, the flowering was very early but quite long and uneven. As in 1989, the summer was exceptionally hot and so dry that at the end of August the young vines were really suffering from lack of water. The two rainy intervals in September were very beneficial to the final ripening of the grapes, which were harvested in very fine weather. (The picking began on 17th September)



 

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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.

 

 

 

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Average Bottle Price

2017 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2005 2000
893€ +3.2% 865€ +14.0% 759€ +2.2% 743€ -3.9% 773€ -24.4% 1 023€ -3.9% 1 065€ +104.4% 521€ +118.9% 238€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Full, Purple and Dark

ending

Long, Smooth and Extensive

flavors

Vanilla, Cherry, Blackcurrant, Earthy, Voluptuous and Cedar

nose

Intense, Refined, Complex and Fresh

recommend

Yes

taste

Average in Acidity, Warming, Medium tannin, Well-structured, Concentrated, Perfectly balanced, Medium-bodied, Rich, Ripe, Harmonious and Sweet

Written Notes

The 1990 Margaux had a deep, elegant nose with a hint of cinnamon. The nose also had cassis fruit and grilled nuts and meats. Deeper and deeper the nose went, down an Alice in Wonderland hole of elegance. Rich and delicious in the mouth, the Margaux didn’t lose any of its elegance on the palate, and its smooth and satiny style set the stage for flavors of purple fruits, nuts, grapes, musk, minerals and slate. The wine smacked on its finish (95).

  • 95p

Bright ruby with a very pale rim. Quite focussed again (like the 2000 tasted alongside) – as though made slightly reductively. You have to search for the 1990 ripeness and gypsy abandon here. But it’s there, lurking under quite a tight, rigorous cloak of still-tannic fruit. The tannins are a little dry – 2003-like almost – this perhaps shows the superiority of the damper more northerly soils. Bright but a little bit jagged. Difficult to decide on an ideal drinking window for this wine when the tannins are so obvious. But after an hour the fruit rode over the tannins.  
Less than half of total production was grand vin – 55 hl/ha overall. Paul Pontallier, now the longest-serving current director of a first growth, compared this to 1985.
12.5% £850

  • 93p

The 1990 Chateau Margaux has turned into a sensational wine that eclipses both the 1988 and 1989...and then some. It has a gorgeous, ethereal bouquet with sumptuous red berry fruit, leather, camphor and licorice—it is the kind of nose in which you just immerse yourself. Is there a hint of brettanomyces here? If there is, I don't really care. The palate is soft and sensual with incredible depth. Fleshy and corpulent for Chateau Margaux, and yet surfeit with breeding and finesse, there are layers or red fruit, kirsch, sage and fig, later tobacco and cloves. I feel that this 1990 Château Margaux is at its peak and yet the harmony, the sheer swagger of this wine just wins you over. Magnificent. Drink 2016-2040.

  • 100p
1990 Chateau Margaux– it’s all here! the Margaux perfume- floral, spice and intrigue in the nose, velvet on the palate with a core of black fruit, impeccable balance and a long finish with clove notes emerging. Vibrant, sexy, almost voluptuous yet sooo elegant. Parker gives it 100 points and I must say I agree. My favorite wine of the night.
  • 100p
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Information

Origin

Margaux, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

None

Inside Information

Bordeaux Book, 4th Edition 
Jan 2003
Robert M. Parker, Jr. 100 Drink: 2003 - 2040 $679-$1399
A prototype Chateau Margaux that combines power and elegance, this wine, which seemed to be sound asleep for nearly a decade, has begun to open over the last several years. Dense ruby/purple with a developing yet compellingly ethereal bouquet of sweet black fruits, violets, smoke, camphor, and licorice, this medium to full-bodied, silky-textured wine still tastes like a 4 or 5-year-old barrel sample, but the aromatics are emerging, and the wine has thrown off that somewhat monolithic, sleepy stage it was in for nearly a decade. Despite the fact that, analytically, the acidity is low, this wine reveals plenty of delineation, very high levels of tannin, and tremendous concentration of ripe fruit, glycerin, and extract. The color shows very few signs of development. The fabulous bouquet is just emerging, and the wine is full-bodied, opulent, and very rich. It is a great achievement in this vintage, and should be drinkable in another 4-5 years and last for at least 3-4 decades. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2040. Last tasted, 10/02.
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