Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron 1989

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "I am fortunate to taste this gem at least once a year, and it consistently delivers an incredible Pauillac experience. Loaded with cedar, lit cigar, tobacco leaf, peppery spice, herbs, currants and blackberry, this wine remains perfectly perched on the precipice of balance and power. Everything about this is just great!"

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Both the 1989 and 1990 vintages exhibit opaque, dense purple colors that suggest massive wines of considerable extraction and richness. The dense, full-bodied 1989 is brilliantly made with huge, smoky, chocolatey, cassis aromas intermingled with scents of toasty oak. Well-layered, with a sweet inner-core of fruit, this awesomely endowed, backward, tannic, prodigious 1989 needs another 5-6 years of cellaring; it should last for three decades or more. It is unquestionably a great Pichon-Longueville-Baron."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Stunning wine, one of the very best 1989s. Rich blackish crimson with a rich nose that is still very sweet and fragrant. But the wine is lovely and refreshing too. Almost minty and aromatic. This stands up well to comparison with the first growths. Bravo! (It was served blind alongside Ch Lynch Bages 1989 which was made by the same man, Daniel Lhose.)"

WINE SPECTATOR: "What a nose here, from crushed mulberry to tanned leather to tar. Full-bodied, with big, velvety tannins that are soft and caressing, like cashmere. This is so tight and powerful still; it seems to be holding back. Be patient, because it will open with another five or six years of bottle age. Hard to wait. So why do it?—'89/'99 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2009). Drink now. 20,000 cases made."