Christian Pol-Roger was recently in Australia to introduce his family’s brilliant Pol Roger 1990 Vintage Brut, another superb wine from perhaps the best vintage since 1985. A blend of 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay, it has a complex, meaty and lightly earthy nose, with sweet aromas of dried flowers, cherries and raspberries. Rich, concentrated and fleshy, yet at once taut and tightly braced together with refreshingly clean acids, it presents an excellent length of complex citrusy and mushroom flavours. So superbly clean and persistent that I rate it 19.3, with a suggestion to enjoy it any time from now over the next five years. Champagne buffs might be equally interested in the very recently disgorged Chardonnay Vintage 1990 from Pol Roger, whose arresting bouquet of roasted nuts, citrus and wild flowers precedes and fleshy, concentrated and vibrant palate of classic creaminess and complexity. I rate the wine at 18.8, but would not be surprised if it performed better with more time on cork.
