TN: 1990 Cheval Blanc

[tjaehnigen]

This was tasted at the JohnnyB (Vinocellar) offline dinner during the Filet of the Gods With That Amazing Sauce course (June 2003). Tasted out of Riedel Sommelier stems.

This was one amazing wine. The nose was filled with roasted meats and licorice. A bit more vibrantly-colored than the Cos d'Esturnel, this wine had some great long legs, too. The nose had properly revealed what to expect on the palate and it brought out more things like mushrooms (but we all couldn't agree on what kind of mushrooms), 'liquid' smoke and what could be sort of described as cherry syrup. Very long finish. This wine also made it to the cheese course for me and it actually paired the best with the funkiest cheese (the Cantal la Giuole (which smelled like feet if you smelled it from the wrong end!)). We dredged to the very bottom of this and the other bottle (the Cos d'Estournel). JohnnyB had particular fun artfully swirling the remaining lumpy, chunky wine to allow the bowl to 'catch the lumps so he could relish in the very last sip of this juice. Hey, we didn't have a dump bucket so what else could we do for fun?

Also, my TN descriptors are an amalgam of all of us who drank the juice.

I forget what JohnnyB said this one rated, but I'd give it easily 96+ points, and these are my newer & tougher TJ ratings points, supposedly.

I think Corkage said he preferred the Cos d'Estournel, but he also said (and all the other stuff we drank), "Man that sh!t was good."