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1990 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

1. I cannot believe I've tasted this wine 4 times over the past two, and with very consistent results. This specific bottle was good, but not great. Rich, big, deep and concentrated, the aromatics kicked off with licorice, tobacco, earth, iron, blackberries and black cherries. Powerful, long and young, as good as it is now, it's only starting to open.

   97 points - Tasted May 24, 2013

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2. Still young, vibrant and fresh, with a deep hue, the wine popped with a complicated perfume packed with boysenberry liqueur, black cherry, flowers, herbs, pepper, licorice, spice and forest floor aromas. Rich, concentrated, powerful and structured, there is a regal quality to the fruit that shines through every step of the way. I've had slightly better bottles that merited triple digits. But this was very close. Drink this now, or age it for decades.

   98 points - Tasted May 13, 2013

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3. I’ve been blessed to have tasted this majestic wine several times this year. In fact, I had this wine twice last week! Even more amazing is the remarkable level of consistency the wine continues to perform at. At days from its 23rd birthday, it’s really starting to come into its own, with its showy display of ripe blackberry, plum and cherries complicated by wet earth, smoke, minerals, garrigue and spice. On the palate, the wine is incredibly dense, with polished textures and no hard edges. The finish is expansive, thick, seamless and long, lasting for over 60 seconds! Over the years, this wine continues to develop layers of complexities, intensity of flavor and silky textures. If you’ve never tasted an Hermitage that blew you away, if you have the money, this is the wine to buy.

   100 points - Tasted Dec 19, 2012

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4. As hard as it is to believe, at almost 22 years of age, this looks and tastes like a young wine. Deeply colored, with a nose filled with spice, black plum, gravel, iron, pepper, grilled meat, blackberry and cassis, the wine is packed and stacked with layers of ripe, deep, pure, sensuous fruit. Still tannic and needed several more years before its fully mature, this exciting wine is powerful, glycerin filled and intense. The wine ends in a beautiful display of plush, ripe, decadent, fleshy, flashy black and red fruit.

   98 points - Tasted Nov 28, 2011

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5. Purple, black in color, this blackberry and cassis wine offers earth, olives, truffles, damp forest and earthy, peppery scents. The wine is opulent and fleshy with refined, elegant tannins. The dense, black fruit filled palate is lush with a backbone for aging. In many ways, it reminded me of slightly less concentrated version of the legendary ’61

   98 points - Tasted Dec 8, 2009

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6. The nose, with its earthy, mineral, truffle, pepper scent was exciting. The wine felt great in the mouth, but it seemed to lack some of the density and youthful quality found in other bottles I’ve had

   95 points - Tasted Jun 30, 2009

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7. There is a lot of bottle variation in this wine. I’ve heard the wine was bottled in two separate batches. The first batch reminds me of essence of Syrah. The second batch, held in wood for several additional months lacks the same level of purity, freshness and complexity. There is no way to tell which bottle came from which batch from looking at the bottles. This bottle probably came from the second batch. While it displayed some of the wonderful flashy, opulent, ripe, black fruit qualities, it did not offer the level of intensity found in the best examples. Still good, but not profound.

   95 points - Tasted Oct 1, 2007

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8. 1990 Jaboulet La Chapelle had 2 or 3 different bottling dates. When tasted from the first bottlng, (there is no way to tell) the wine os one of the top Hermitage wines ever produced! And this was a very good bottle. The wine oozes out of the glass sliding over your palate in wave after wave of deep, dark, lush frui, spices, minerals, pepper, licorice, cassis and berries. Still young, in another decade or two when this wine is fully mature, the best bottles will deliver an amazing tasting experience.

   97 points - Tasted Feb 5, 2006

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9. With coaxing, you could sense the concentration, extraction and depth of ripe, black fruits and flavors, but it remains very primary. Another decade and this will assuredly morph into something unique

   96 points - Tasted Apr 25, 2005

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