| Score: |
98+ JG.
"This monumental bottle of wine is nowhere near ready to drink, but it is also quite open for inspection, with all of its constituent components harmoniously laid out in a compelling mosaic. The bouquet is amazing, offering up a potpourri of black raspberry, roasted black cherry and plum fruit, orange rind, bacon fat, intense Vosne spices, a strong vein of minerality, bitter chocolate, game, cloves, emerging notes of sous bois and a fine base of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, tangy and laser-like in its focus, with a rock solid core of pure fruit, strong soil tones, great tangy acids, and a long, complex and intensely flavored finish. There is still a fair bit of tannin on the finish, but this is a wine that will go the distance on the strength of its amazing acidity. In comparison to many 1990 red Burgundies these days, the Jayer Cros Parantoux is noteworthy for its sleek shape and stunning purity. There cannot be too many 1990s that breath this same rarefied air. I have often in the past had a slight preference for Jayer’s Echézeaux over his Cros Parantoux, but in 1990 I have to give the slight nod to this wine." John Gilman, View From the Cellar, Oct 2003 |