Top 200 wines in 2024, #3, 99 points

Chateau Haut-Brion 1990

I have had this a few times over the years, and up until 2024 I found it to be a youthful wine with plenty of pent up energy and potential. Clearly a wine with the best years ahead of it - it was all about the future. One thing you could say was that it has been a bit more consistent than the 1989. This was the last bottle in a strong line up of wines that we had at a dinner at Cabotte in the summer, which also included Haut-Brions from 1966 and 1985, which I suspected might show better than the 1990, and already remarked on above (clearly then they didn't...marvellous as the 1966 was). The future has now arrived:

My tasting note: 

Saving the best to last Ch Haut Brion 1990 had a shattering effect; with soaring cedar and tobacco exuberance and searing scorched earth; it was ripe, with wild strawberry fruit, full-bodied and sexy, packing a lot of energy and power on the palate, but at the same time with exquisite balance, finesse and harmony. It drank ever so well – previous bottles I have had of this in recent years have been a bit tight and needed time, but not this one. This bottle also had laser like precision. This is now in its early drinking window and has the structure to last for many more decades. A gorgeous, sexy, complete, utterly brilliant wine, 99 pts. 

I wasn't expecting this to be that good. It is one of those rare occasions where you slump back in your chair and say 'wow'! In my tasting notes 99 point wines are exceedingly rare. The reason why this rates so highly is because of its sheer energy and exuberance, which is delivered with such utter precision. A good analogy would be a tennis player hitting the ball very hard, very accurately and consistently a few inches inside the base line.  

Haut-Brion 1990, second bottle from the right, the star among an elite cast: