This is one of my favorite wines ever. Full-bodied with layers of silky fruit and masses of currant mineral and berry character. Amazing. It's a wine with perfect structure perfect strength. It's 1961 Latour in modern clothes. It's hard not to drink it now. '89/'90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal. Best after 2008. -JS

A superb wine, ageing well, the 1990 Latour still seems deceptively youthful, with plenty of ripe mulberry and blackcurrant fruit, but there is also a graceful evolution, with truffle, earth and smoke notes. The texture is supple and warm, but it avoids the softness of some of the clarets from 1990. The tannins are still reasonably firm and the wine should continue to improve in the cellar for at least another 20 years. (Drink between 2022-2062)

A classic, powerful, regal Latour, the 1990 is solidly in its drink window and has a still-ruby hue as well as a gorgeous perfume of darker currants, tobacco leaf, new saddle leather, and graphite. It opens up beautifully with air and has the perfect mix of great fruit and purity with mature and complex, cedary nuances. Full-bodied on the palate, perfectly balanced, and with sweet yet still present tannins, it can safely be enjoyed any time over the coming 40-50 years.

Tasted blind at The Arches. Poured from magnum, the 1990 Latour is a tour de force. It displays immense purity and precision on the nose with graphite and tobacco scents, a hint of dried rose petal and mahogany bureau developing with time. The palate is surprisingly backwards considering that it is already over two decades old. It is underpinned with very well judged acidity that lends it poise and grace. But the headline is simple the unadulterated, astounding exhibition of Cabernet Sauvignon that drives the 1990 forward to its intense crushed stone finish where you can almost taste those Pauillac pebbles. Although I have encountered a couple of mis-firing bottles, this is the real deal.

Continuing to develop in all the right ways, the wine balances its elegance with vibrance, power, length, and strength. Concentrated, deep, rich, and fresh, with layers of currants, blackberries, and spice, this is a beautiful example of what makes Latour special. Drink from 2023-2050.

The 1990 Latour, served from double magnum direct from the château, is a magnificent wine. It is a showstopping bouquet that explodes from the glass. Oodles of blackberry mixes with cedar and glycerin. This is Latour at its most aromatically decadent. Perhaps due to provenance and format, the aromatics are also the most youthful. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful poise. The graphite element is more pronounced in this larger format, fanning out gloriously toward the finish to complete one of the finest examples I have encountered of this wine. Tasted at the Académie du Vin dinner in Bordeaux. -- Neal Martin

This is one of the more perplexing Latours to evaluate. It has plenty of sweetness as well as a gorgeous rich fruitiness but it lacks the firmness one finds in more recent great vintages such as 1996 2000 2003 2005 2006 and 2008. There is plenty of sweet ripe currant fruitiness abundant glycerin and full body but I'm still waiting for that extra nuance of complexity to emerge. It's all there but the wine still seems to be more monolithic than one would expect in a wine approaching 19 years of age. It is not the sure-fire winner I thought it was in its youth but then again I don't have any reason to doubt that more complexity will emerge. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2035. 95+