I grilled a couple of racks of lamb last night and while cruising the cellar I came upon a case of 1990 Chateau Haut Brion. Interesting back story to the case of wine. I recieved a call a number of years ago from a freind in the wine business asking me if I wanted to take atrip with him to buy some wine from a restaurant in Muncie Indiana. The restauarnt was owned by cartoonist Jim Davis of "Garfield" fame and the restaurant was selling off it's extensive cellar as it had fallen on hard times and was closed. We drove over to Muncie and wow!! This place had an unbeleiveable cellar and prices were incredible. I bought the 1990 Haut Brion, a number of Domaine du Chevalier Blanc's, Trimbach CFE and CSH, D'Yquem, etc and while I don't remember how much I spent in total it was literally pennies on the dollar. Cartoonist are funny people!
1990 Chateau Haut Brion-decanted for two hours. A bit light in the decanter with a faint amount of brick. Effusive nose with lots of floral notes, violets and roses. Plenty of cedar and leather with earthy red berry notes. Smooth on the palate with well resolved tannins. Mature flavors of cedar and tobacco, red currants, a bit of spicebox and a fair amount of smokey oak on the finish. I'm going to drink the rest of the case over the next few years as I'm not totally sure of the lifespan. "A-"FWIW, I opened a bottle of 2009 Block Nine Pinot Noir ($10) to drink while grilling. Very sappy with a strong soapy background flavor that I found offputting. "C-"