Ripe, almost cooked fruit, with nuts, raisin and spices. Full-bodied, with a dense palate of ripe fruit and a leathery, spicy, dried berry character. So long and powerful. Chewy. This is big and very juicy, with loads of powerful fruit. A little alcoholic, even rustic, but I like it. (JS)

(yield of 51 h/h; 13% alcohol): Garnet-tinged red. Leafy aromas of green and red bell pepper, bay leaf and sweeter milk chocolate and superripe plum. Then sweeter and smoother in the mouth than the nose suggests, showing very ripe red cherry, blackberry, milk chocolate and mineral flavors. This boasts a lovely creamy texture and a nice spicy finish, with chewy tannins. A lovely wine, with a sexy personality that grew on me as it opened in the glass, but it's much inferior to the stellar 1990. Make sure you decant this at least a couple hours ahead. A precocious year, 1989 registered only 450 millimeters of rainfall (or half the normal amount) during the growth cycle, with the flowering taking place in the last week of May and veraison during the first week of August. Harvest was from September 7 to 27, the earliest start ever at Cheval Blanc.

Somewhat of a disappointment in a sometimes great yet variable vintage, the color a dark ruby with amber at the edge, this wine shows sweet plum, fig, and currant notes, along with some herbs and earth. In the mouth, it is surprisingly lightweight for a wine from a superior year, medium-bodied, relatively lush, but an essentially one-dimensional wine with a spicy, surprisingly short finish. Drink it over the next 10-15 years. Last tasted, 12/02.