1990 Bordeaux

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” should have been the catchphrase for 1990, the hottest growing season since 1947. This was an extraordinary vintage for many top estates, but not without potential pitfalls that led to some big-name disappointments.

Apart from the growing season being hot, it was also very dry in July and August, which would prove challenging for some of the deep gravel and sand-based soil types, and yet played to the advantage of soils containing clay and/or limestone.

Rains would eventually come in mid to late September into early October, delivering variable amounts of water depending on location and, therefore, heterogeneous quality. In some places, a little rain in the run-up to harvest was a blessing, providing much needed water to parched vines on free-draining soils and offering the wherewithal to complete ripening. In a few vineyards, there were some incidences of dilution. In other sites, it was a case of too little, too late. The most famous example is Château Mouton Rothschild, known for its deep gravel mounds, which can cause the vines to struggle in dry, hot years like 1990. Despite the dry conditions, yields across Bordeaux were very high in 1990, thanks to a bountiful fruit set.

From the get-go, the 1990 reds were showy wines packed with juicy black fruits and lower acidity. Even if the tannins were on the high side, these wines had an immediate appeal compared to 1989 and especially 1986. Some 1990s rival the ’82s, if in a very different style. But one of my greatest frustrations about 1990 is that quite a few wines were blighted with Brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast poorly understood then. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the components of the 1990 reds were a classic cocktail for Brett growth: lower acidity/high pHs, an abundance of sugar, more new oak being employed, and a high level of tannins (precursors for Brett). Brett can be insidious in its effects, mainly because many wineries did (and still do) bottle wines unfined and unfiltered. So, the Brettanomyces would be bottled to varying degrees within the wines and bloom during the cellaring, worsening over time. An infamous example is the 1990 Montrose—a wine that can be jaw-droppingly gorgeous or a terrible disappointment, depending on the amount of Brett in that particular bottle and your tolerance for Brett.

Unusually, it was also a stellar year for the sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac. The growing season was slightly wetter and more humid in this part of Bordeaux, leading to the swift, uniform unset of Botrytis. The warm, sunny summer months led to higher than average sugar levels, and therefore, this is a relatively rich, decadent vintage for sweet wines.