1990 Paul Jaboulet Aine Domaine de Thalabert Crozes-Hermitage, Rhone, France

Description

• 1/21/2025 – oenanthe Likes this wine:94 Points

  Northern Rhone with bottle age (The Laundry, Brixton): Ooof, now this is wine. Sensationally good. Rich, delicious, almost absurd that a cheap and cheerful Crozes-Hermitage with 35 years under its belt can be this good but there it is. The cork was a disaster but could not defeat the class of the 1990 vintage chez Jaboulet. Sexy and seductive, a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about it but this is a complete triumph. Sweet, inviting, fruit perfectly alive, red and blue berries jumping out, so much so that I am not entirely sure we are even fully into the tertiary stage yet, though we have smoked meat, dust and leather, coffee grinds and herbs sitting alongside. It is simply lovely. Complete wine and group WOTN.

  1/21/2025 – irish-oak Likes this wine:95 Points

  Popped & poured, the cork crumbling even with the durand. Mercifully the wine showed no signs of damage.

  Dusty, fusty old cellar. Meaty, smokey, bloody, iron, crispy bacon, tomato, toast, savoury, soy sauce, coffee. Cinnamon spice & white pepper. Floral, violets. Every nose of the glass rewarded with something new. Fresh & bright on the palette, tingle of spice, long juicy finish with very mellow tannins.

  A beguiling wine, so complete and so delicious. Easily stood out as WOTN among its esteemed company. A real treat.

  1/11/2025 – notasfarwest wrote:91 Points

  Old wine! Such a gamble, but this paid off. Roasted blue and black fruit, smoked meats and mushroom, soft acidity and tannins – just a pleasure to drink. It is holding on and certainly had way more life than any Crozes should expect to, so drink up!

• 11/15/2024 – townjbc Likes this wine:92 Points

  Still going strong. An excellent wine. I am a great fan of Thalabert.

  12/5/2023 – townjbc Likes this wine:94 Points

  Absolutely lovely wine. Have I ever tasted a better wine from the Rhone valley? I don’t think so. From the entrancing bouquet to the delicious and complex flavours and great finish, this is a class wine that is a privilege to drink.

  11/23/2023 – Wine Canuck wrote:94 Points

  This pours light ruby in the glass with no evident bricking. Impressive color considering the age, but makes sense given the pristine bottle, fill level, and cork. The nose begins a tad closed dominated by black fruit and a touch to eucalyptus. Over the course of an hour it really kicks things into high gear showing dried blueberry, red currant, red plum, light roast coffee, scorched earth, smoked meat, mint, hot rocks, thyme blossom, and toasted mustard seed. The palate is lovely showing bright light and blueberry fruit with a nicely rounded mouthfeel. Tannin is medium minus and velvety with medium plus acid. The finish nicely replays much of the nose in very harmonious fashion. Overall this is just gorgeous, clearly far better than the 1990 La Chapelle, and simply a great wine. A blind taster of this wine pegged it as a 2002 – 2007 red burgundy from a good producer. A testament to the low extract, elegant style and graceful aging curve on evidence here.

  8/14/2023 – humagne wrote:98 Points

  Smoked bacon, spices leather, earth, cherry.. Stunning presence and length on the palate, well balanced. Almost perfect bottle.

• 5/20/2023 – J’agnes Likes this wine:97 Points

  Used a Durand but probably would have been fine with a corkscrew as the cork was clean with a great seal and minimal seepage. Dark blood with some bricking up around the edge of a decent clear rim. Nose of smoked meat, iron and blood – just lovely smokey and very forward. Fruit still very evident – cooked blackberry and apple. Super refreshing zingy acidity with a nice long finish and barely perceptible soft fine tannin. My last bottle of 12 – suggest drink up in the next 5 years.

  3/6/2023 – Ravi Deshpande Likes this wine:92 Points

  My last bottle of a case bought in 1991 or so – one of the first cellared wines in my collection. Still a rich and beautiful wine, lots of black fruit, no beef broth or iron flavours as other vintages have shown. There is a persistent barnyard nose that was not unpleasant. Decant 45 minutes for best results.

  7/23/2022 – mxpbuy Likes this wine:93 Points

  2 Tablespoons of sediment; decanted for an hour. Slight bricking and orange color. Black olives, black tea, cherries with some barnyard and blackberries on the nose. On the plate but the fruits were more evident there than on the nose. Also some dried herbs. Long finish. Near silky smooth.

  5/2/2022 – NickA Likes this wine:95 Points

  This was quite wonderful, and certainly still going strong! Opened with the Durand (unnecessary, still a great cork) and then took a sip, which revealed plenty of vitality, and a really great wine. I then left it to settle a little before decanting for (copious) sediment, and we drank the bottle over around five hours, during which it lost maybe 10% of its initial zip but remained delicious.

  Very dark middle, like the centre of a huge ruby, with some bricking on the rim. Lots of smoke on the nose, and herbal, like putting bales of thyme on a campfire, then more ashy than smokey, some iron, and some meatiness, which occasionally verged into Bretty horseyness. Really crisp and juicy on the palate – almost a citrusy brightness to the midpalate – but also plenty of depth, with an earthy, truffley quality, the savour of lamb fat, and then smooth, tasty cocoa on the finish. The whole package was superbly drinkable and harmonious as well as complex – shame this was my first and, presumably, only bottle.

  3/20/2022 – Eric wrote:95 Points

  ESTG Northern Rhône: I so distinctly remember when Susan brought this wine to a tasting in 2003, and I absolutely flipped over it. Well here we are 19 years later, and this is still drinking insanely well. Mmmm, cracked pepper, smoked meat, deeeep, heavy bass notes, earthy, yet soaring, smoky, mushroom and sous bois, this is just so, so good!