1990 Vintage

Hi all - relatively new here but starting to look for '90 vintage wines. Mainly Bordeaux (both right and left bank), Rhone, Barolo, or Champagne. Looking for birth year wines as gifts and to stash for later years. I’ve read a lot of the posts on here trying to find a good synopsis of what wines to look for/avoid but am having trouble really nailing that down since I’ve never had a wine from that year and haven’t been in a position to buy older wines until recently. In addition, are there any good ways to go about procuring those wines outside of winesearcher/auction houses? I know from my reading here that the auctions can be hit or miss (haven’t bought anything yet - mainly because it can be tough to ship to TX with our archaic liquor laws). Provenance is key but what are the best ways to tell online? Seems like you are basically taking the word of the auction house.

tl;dr: looking for recommendations on which '90 wines to target and best ways to procure them. Not really looking at first growths but budget is probably maxed out around $300 a bottle but certainly don’t need to spend that much.

If there are any threads that I’ve missed that detail this happy to read those but have read a good number already. newhere

Great vintage all throughout Europe. Port might be the exception. Try online sales from places known for their older wines. The Rare Wine Co. in California, Garnet in NYC are a couple.

Jeff - great year in Bordeaux. Personal favorites are Pichon Baron and Cos d’Estournel

Great stuff, thanks!

1990 is a great vintage and performing at peak imo. We had a 4 bottle 1990 Bordeaux horizontal a couple of weeks ago:
1990 Trotanoy
1990 Palmer
1990 Leoville Poyferre
1990 Leoville Barton.

All were wonderful. All were different. Different people at the dinner had different favorites. Some liked the silky smoothness of the Trotanoy. My favorite (That night) was the Palmer. It was fill, big, balanced. The Poyferre was the most ‘expressive’. The Barton the most balanced, classic. So which to look for? Depends on what you like. If you’ve liked a wine in another vintage you’ll probably like the 1990. We all have our Bordeaux favorites. I like Cos d’Estournel, Palmer, Leoville Barton, Leoville Las Cases and lots of others…

It was agreed upon at our dinner that 1990 was the new ‘1982’, meaning that it is likely now drinking better (Just our opinion). Some will be better than others but the vintage is drinking very well now. Enjoy the hunt!

Thanks Ross. Appreciate the perspective!

Nope Nope Nope.

Garnet in NYC has been in decline for a couple of years now, new owners and most of the old stuff is gone.

Try Chambers & Flatiron in NYC and BPW and Benchmark in CA.

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BPW is now First Bottle fwiw

Highly recommend Sauternes from 1989 and 1990. I have more personal experience with 89 than 90, but I’m sure others here could jump in with specific recommendations.

+1 Michael. I’ve had great results with both 89 and 90 Sauternes. Even lesser names seem to shine.