1989 Cheval Blanc (Unsaleable)

A legendary year where Cheval was among wines of the vintage Still full of life even if the tertiary notes are domiant, with truffled spice, tobacco, cocoa and cinammon, touches of saffron and raspberry puree but with an incredible freshness on the finish for a wine that is now 32 years old. The tannins are so finely spun at this point that you barely get any resistance from them, and yet a gentle power and sense of confidence is still unmissable. Generous and so moreish. Overall it was a great Pomerol year and Cheval is famously located right next door to this appellation and on similar soils - you can look to Trotanoy and Petrus for other wines from this vintage that are knocking it out of the park right now. Rainfall was 25% below average for the region, but the yield was up at an extremely generous 50hl/h.

The 1989 Cheval Blanc is a vintage that I have not encountered since 2010. One bottle opened was rustic and fatigued, and Pierre-Olivier Clouet opened a second that was much better. It has a gorgeous bouquet of ample red fruit, morels, black truffle, cigar box and hints of brown sugar, all very well defined and charming. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin and approaching full maturity; brown spices, bay leaf and clove infuse the red berry fruit. At 30 years of age, I suspect this 1989 will not improve further, but its robustness suggests that any decline will be graceful. Tasted from an ex-cellar bottle at the château. (NM)