WTN: Haut-Bailly '90; losing my taste for left bank claret?

Château Haut-Bailly – Pessac-Léognan – 1990 – Alc. 12.5% ; estate’s varietal composition (2009) is 65% CabSauv, 25% Merlot, 8% CabFranc and 2% Petit Verdot.

I was reared on left bank Bordeaux and have tended to regard it as the classic wine through all these decades. I have many in my cellar but now drink much less of it. This is partly because I am keen to drink all the amazing food friendly variety which is out there nowadays and partly because the cost of fine Bordeaux (I guess this bottle would sell for about €70) tends to make me subconsciously hold back these wines for special occasions.

Additionally, when I have a bottle like this from an estate and vintage with a fine reputation, I also ask myself whether I am falling out of love with the style. It was an admirable wine which did not move me in the same way as, say, many Bach fugues which give intellectual satisfaction while leaving me cold.

C: Medium depth ruby/garnet with distinct bricking at the rim.
N: Subdued at first but nice claret fruit with some generous roundness and the typically Left bank fresh (almost green) edge.
P: Well shaped with crescendo towards the firmly structured finish and good length, medium bodied with good depth, good fruit and 1990 generosity. The wine was undoubtedly elegant but a touch severe and I missed some cedar, leather and pencil lead complexity and the classy charm that I recall from some of the equivalent clarets drunk in the 60s – 80s; just 16/20.

Maybe it still needs still more time for full expression but its colour is not encouraging.

It was an admirable wine which did not move me in the same way as, say, many Bach fugues which give intellectual satisfaction while leaving me cold.

This is a property I love. Then again, I also find deep emotional satisfaction, in addition to intellectual satisfaction, in Bach's Fugues. But still, the '90 wasn't one of my favourite Haut-Baillys (nor, more generally, a favourite year for any property in Bordeaux). I liked the '88 and especially the '78 more for this property. How are you with other Haut-Baillys?

Otto, I don't have a lot of experience of other Haut-Bailly vintages. Generally I am quite receptive to an austere style, e.g. good Cahors, traditional Barolo, etc. Apart from various barrel sample at tastings, I had a dozen 1990 which, so far, have all given me much the same impression as this one and have still a half-dozen 1994s, which I have not so far tried, because of some cellar gossip suggesting that it is not one of the best 94s, in any case an iffy vintage.

However, I do have a very fond but blurred memory of an Haut-Bailly 1947 or 49 drunk in a Bordeaux restaurant in the 60s. It would be nice to be able to roll back time to retaste it as it was then but having all the wine drinking experience which I have since accumulated.