Tasted at The Sampler’s Batailley vertical tasting in London with Philippe Castèja, the 1990 Batailley has a muted nose: tobacco, sage, mushroom and smoke aromas but lacking the rounded ebullient fruit one usually finds on this vintage. It begins to open with further aeration, with wild mint and graphite—becoming more Pauillac with time. The palate is medium-bodied with a bucolic entry, nice weight in the mouth, a dash of black pepper livening things up, fleshing out a little toward the savory, chestnut-tinged finish. This is the best bottle of 1990 Batailley that I have encountered. Tasted January 2011.