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The 1999 Richebourg Grand Cru from Hudelot-Noëllat personifies the vineyard with some style. It has a stunning, pure, elegant and effortless nose that maybe expresses that essence of pinoté better than more than a dozen other Richebourg wines present at this tasting. Raspberry coulis, wild strawberry and cold stone soar from the glass with great focus. The palate is tensile, the red berry fruit laced with orange zest that lends vivacity and energy. To be banal, this is just a Richebourg so well crafted that you want to just drink it rather than intellectualize over its virtues. That’s the sign of a great wine. Drink from 2015-2030.Robert Parker Neal Martin | 95 RP-NM(Richebourg- Hudelot-Noëllat) The 1999 Hudelot Richebourg is much more together out of the blocks that the RSV, delivering a complex and compelling bouquet of red plums and cherries, milk chocolate, smoke, venison, minerals, herb tones, hints of forest floor and a stylish coating of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, lush and potentially quite opulent, with excellent focus and polish, packed with fruit at the core, and excellent length and grip on the moderately tannic finish. This does not quite possess the nascent complexity of the Méo Richebourg, but it matches it every step of the way for breed, focus and delineation, Another ringing success for the vintage. While this will be approachable in a few years, I would give it at least eight or nine years to fully open and start hitting on all cylinders. Fine, fine juice. (Drink between 2010-2040)John Gilman | 94 JG (aged in about 40% new oak, a bit less than in recent vintages): Medium red with modest saturation. Aromas of black raspberry, leather and earth are less pristine than those of today’s wines. Creamy-sweet and spicy in the mouth, with a slightly high-toned quality to its fat flavors of red berries, red cherry, underbrush and leather.Vinous Media | 93 VMClassic Hudelot style with its discreetly elegant nose of spice and beautifully proportioned flavors displaying outstanding richness and perfect acid/fruit balance. Very fine, very long and a Richebourg that delivers finesse rather than power though this is by no means a shrinking violet. In short, this is a complex, long and perfectly balanced effort that has largely reached its apogee.Burghound | 93 BH

Rich and ripe Pinot Noir, black in color, thick in texture, pumping out the flavors. Silky midpalate reveals the pedigree of this wine. Loaded with sweet blackberry character that goes on to a long finish. Drink now through 2010.Wine Spectator | 93 WSBright, deep ruby-red. Complex nose melds violet, bitter chocolate, earth, meat and a hint of medicinal austerity. Dense, rich and thick; a wine of compelling richness and sweetness, but also solidly structured despite its accessibility today. Finishes with lush but firm tannins and exhilarating notes of cassis and violet. Lovely pinot noir.Vinous Media | 92 VM(Gros Frère et Soeur Richebourg Grand Cru Red) Extremely ripe with powerful black fruit, wood toast and Vosne spice aromas with tannic, robust flavors yet good finesse on the long finish. This makes a firm statement and has good size to go with the penetrating fruit. (Drink between 2009-2016)Burghound | 90 BH

The 1999 Lafite Rothschild sports an engraved "1999" on the bottle along with an eclipse to mark that significant historical event of August, 1999. It is a quintessential offering from Lafite Rothschild. This prodigious wine is both elegant and intensely flavored, and almost diaphanous in its layers that unfold with no heaviness. An opaque ruby/purple color is accompanied by a complex bouquet of lead pencil, graphite, cedar, creme de cassis, toast, and vanilla. It is medium-bodied, with extravagant layers of richness yet little weight, and a finish that is all sweetness, ripeness, and harmony. This extraordinary Lafite increasingly appears to be a modern day clone of the majestic 1953. A mere one-third of the crop made it into the grand vin! Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030.Robert Parker | 95 RP1999 was a more difficult vintage, but this is a classic Pauillac at 20 years old, and we should expect it stay on its plateau for the next 20-30 years. You can feel the edges of an older Cabernet beginning to creep in as cigar box and gentle tobacco notes, but there is still dense but savoury fruit on display, with real elegance and finesse to the tannins. Showing great harmony, this is where the beauty of Lafite is on display - you can find many wonderful 2009 and 2010s, but not so many wonderful ’99s. All four grapes - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc - are in the blend here, perhaps something that happens only once every ten years or so. This vintage demonstrates how Lafite doesn’t need concentration to still be something incredible. A mixed year weather-wise with a good spring followed by a rainy summer until mid-August when the sun returned. There was an excellent Indian summer, then a few drops of rain again during harvest, which sped things up. These challenges, says Baron Eric, meant that they forgot about it for a good 15 years, as the wine was extremely closed, but around three years ago it started to open back up. This is ready to be enjoyed. Drinking Window 2018 - 2030.Decanter | 94 DECDelivers wonderful dark chocolate, with raspberry and currant undertones. Full-bodied, featuring soft, silky tannins and a long finish. Very tight still. Needs time. Very layered and holding back.--’89/’99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Best after 2012. 22,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 94 WSWinemaker Eric Kohler recalled the 1999 Lafite-Rothschild as being born in a "sad summer." Personally, I have liked this First Growth since I first tasted it in barrel. Now 20 years old, it is beginning to show a little bricking on the rim. The bouquet is clean and detailed, with black currant, raspberry, melted tar and cedar developing in the glass (but less of the allspice that I observed in previous bottles). The palate is medium-bodied and maybe more compact than expected, possibly due to this being ex-cellar. While not a concentrated Lafite-Rothschild, it is very harmonious and elegant, brushed with a subtle pepperiness toward the finish and a tang of dried orange peel on the aftertaste. Delightful. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the estate.Vinous Media | 92 VM

This is one of the greatest dry white wines I have ever tasted. The 1999 Ermitage l’Ermite is a liquid mineral, crystalline expression. It is the essence of its grape as well as terroir. It may be the greatest expression of terroir I have seen outside of a handful of Alsatian Rieslings (Clos Ste. Hune comes to mind). It has that transparent character that terroiristes talk more about than actually recognize. Drinking it is like consuming a liquified stony concoction mixed with white flowers, licorice, and honeyed fruits. It is frightfully pure, dense, and well-delineated. As I said last year, "There is no real fruit character, just glycerin, alcohol, and liquid stones." That’s about it, but, wow, what an expression! Anticipated maturity: 2012-2050. This is for the connoisseur of rare wines. Along with Gerard and Jean-Louis Chave, Chapoutier is producing the finest expressions of white Hermitage. His single vineyard cuvees are to die for if you like these eccentric, idiosyncratic, mammoth dry whites.Robert Parker | 100 RPNo written review provided. | 93 W&SBeautiful. Thick, yet so reserved aromatically, with plenty of honey, mineral, macadamia nut, pear tart and passion fruit. What makes it a winner is the opulent, smooth texture. Drink now through 2010. 380 cases made.Wine Spectator | 92 WS(from 70-to-80-year-old vines planted on granite soil; done entirely in new barriques) Spiced apple, minerals and toffee on the nose. Bright, firm, minerally and quite stylish. Very fine in the mouth and on the suave finish, which features oak notes of cinnamon and nutmeg.Vinous Media | 90+ VMYou call it Hermitage, they call it Ermitage; regardless, this is one smooth, waxy wine with mature peach aromas and papaya flavors that spread across your palate like sea foam on the beach. The toasty finish is soft and subdued, with hints of licorice and pepper. Quite complex and idiosyncratic; it’s the polar opposite of “mainstream.” Wine Enthusiast | 90 WE

The 1999 Château Margaux is an immensely charming wine that’s drinking beautifully today from both bottle and, in this case, magnum. Bursting with aromas of blackcurrants, blackberries and violets framed by subtle hints of cigar box, it’s medium to full-bodied, supple and sensual, with an enveloping core of fruit, ripe and melting tannins and a long, penetrating finish. Analogies with the immensely charming 1985 vintage are very persuasive, as the 1999 is quite reminiscent of how the 1985 tasted fifteen years ago.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPMedium ruby. Expressive aromas of black raspberry, Cuban tobacco and grilled nuts; a bit more red fruit in character than either the 2000 or the 2001. Silky, seamless and enveloping, but the wine’s excellent vinosity gives its creamy fruit very good definition. Consistent from start to finish. Tannins are substantial but fine, allowing the fruit and floral flavors to linger impressively. Along with Latour, an early candidate for the wine of the vintage.Vinous Media | 93 VMThis has a rather friendly, fleshy feel, with a plump core of crushed plum, currant and cherry notes out front, backed by bergamot, lilac and sandalwood accents. Not superdense, but with lovely mouthfeel and a balance that carries the finish gracefully. A beautiful wine in a vintage where most of the Médoc struggled.--Non-blind Château Margaux vertical (December 2013). Drink now through 2022. 16,665 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WS

The velvety texture is clear even on the nose, with truffle and chocolate shavings giving a mouthwatering opener. This is a lighter-framed Petrus than the 1998 but still one that pulses with intensity and complexity of expression. The tannins are finely boned, gently laid out to cushion the olive paste, plum and blackberry fruit, and it shows no sign of slowing down at 21 years old. Jean-Claude Berrouet remembers that the vintage needed more vigilance in the cellar than the 1998, with the need to resist over-extraction that would artificially fill in any gaps, and the result is a balanced and lyrical wine. A vintage that shows the virtue of clay, and the virtue of Pomerol, in that its wines ripened earlier and were therefore not affected when the weather turned rainy later in September (harvest here was September 15, 16, 17 after what had been an early-ripening year overall). 50% new oak. Drinking Window 2020 - 2030.Decanter | 95 DECThis wine is turning out much in the style of such wonderful Petrus vintages as 1967 and 1971. Although not as outstanding as either the 1998 or 2000, it displays beautiful intensity and finesse in a more evolved style than one normally expects from this estate. The wine has a dense, nearly opaque ruby/purple color, sweet black cherry, mulberry, truffle-infused fruit, full body, low acidity, admirable purity, and sweet tannin. It should be ready to drink in 5-6 years, and will last for two decades. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2030. Only 2,400 cases were produced.Robert Parker | 94 RPThe 1999 Petrus was made by Jean-Claude Berrouet (his son Olivier was training at Haut-Brion at the time) and harvest was in early September. This has the best aromatics of any Pomerol that I have tasted alongside Lafleur, featuring lovely red berry fruit and black truffle, almost Burgundian in style and beautifully defined. The palate is medium-bodied with plenty of freshness and definition, touches of black truffle and sage infusing the red fruit. Perhaps the limitations of the growing season impinge upon the finish, which feels a little conservative in style, but this still ranks among the better Pomerols of the vintage. “Fine and delicate,” Oliver Berrouet remarked during the tasting, and I concur. Tasted from an ex-château bottle at the estate.Vinous Media | 92 VMA pretty, fruity red with beautiful tobacco, berry and cedar. Medium-bodied, with good soft tannins and a pretty finish.--Pétrus non-blind vertical. Drink now. 2,080 cases made.Wine Spectator | 90 WS

This was a magical bottle of the 1999 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, a wine that's just beginning to hit its stride as it approaches its 20th birthday, unfurling in the glass with aromas of red berries, cassis, dark chocolate, cinnamon, dried rose petals and orange rind. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, deep and immensely concentrated, with a broad attack, lovely acids and a formidable reserve of creamy old-vine fruit, structured around a chalky chassis of tannin that evokes the great old Burgundies of yesteryear. Concluding with a long and expansive finish, this is still a young wine, and another two decades of aging won't be a problem. But it's now clear that this ranks as one of Ponsot's greatest recent hits—and one of the high points of this reputed vintage.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 98 RPA spicy, ripe and relatively expressive nose features superbly complex aromas that combine maturing red, black and dark berry fruit elements along with plenty of pungent earth character. There is terrific intensity to the seductively sappy and concentrated broad-shouldered but well-detailed flavors that offer knock out power. This really does a slow build from the attack all the way to the explosive finish that lingers for minutes. As impressive as the wine is however, the structure has once again begun to assert itself and thus it will likely need another 5 to 8 years of cellar time to be at its best. Tasted thrice recently with similar results though, somewhat worryingly, a fourth bottle displayed enough brett to notice.Burghound | 96 BHGood dark red. An initial touch of reduction to the aromas of raspberry, minerals, mocha and musky woodsmoke. Wonderfully sweet and lively on the palate; an outstanding expression of soil, with plush, fine-grained flavors of red berries, smoke, minerals and exotic Asian spices conveying an impression of finesse that's striking for such a rich, powerful wine. The very long, mounting finish displays balsamic notes of cedar and sandalwood and benefits from strong, perfectly integrated tannins. New winemaker Alexandre Abel considers this wine too young to drink but would double-decant it if you do (my bottle had simply been uncorked two hours before I tasted it).Vinous Media | 96 VM(Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes- Ponsot) I should note that there is a provisional aspect to my enthusiasm for this wine, as this note dates back to the first couple of 1999 in the bottle tastings in late 2001 and early 2002. If this wines remains as strong as it initially appeared upon its arrival here, then the Clos de la Roche will be the first Clos de la Roche to issue forth from the domaine since the 1991. The nose is deep, packed with fruit and very primary, with layers of plum, cherry, vinesmoke, game, loads of soil tones, mustard seed, dark chocolate, and other herbs soaring from the glass. On the palate the wine is big, full and opulent, with great underlying structure, plenty of ripe tannins buried in fruit, and superb focus that the powerful 1997 never displayed this early in its youth. For those that have been hankering for another monument of Ponsot Clos de la Roche, the 1999 may well be the vintage. I only hope that it is able to maintain the freshness that it is currently showing. 2012-2050. 95 (if it stays the course and does not start to taste prematurely senile as the 1998 is now doing).John Gilman | 95 JG