This was tasted at the JohnnyB offline dinner during the chocolate cake course as well as before and after that. Tasted out of I think Sauvignon Blanc Riedel stems (right?).

Dessert wines are always everyone's downfall right? Well, it was ours since we couldn't finish the 750 that JohnnyB had opened (I think we polished off 1/2 to 3/4 of it)! Ack!

But this was some great juice. After being warned we could not say 'honey' as a descriptor, we dove right in. I will use 'honey' as a color description though, because that is what it looked like. Lots of general notes here, but it was loaded with butterscotch, apricot, strawberries, gree apple (yeah), varnish, creamy chunks (maybe white chocolate?) with carmelized pineapple. This was great, definitely better than the 1998 vintage (whci I rated a 92, I think).

Also, my TN descriptors are an amalgam of all of us who drank the juice.

This sucker is worth 94+ points. Superb.

The "wine purist" in me says, "Hey, you can't drink a Sauternes with chocolate". But the "wine enthusiast" says, "Why not? You really loved it!"

Definetly a WOW wine. I love it!
Of course you should try it up against a 1990 Yquem. It would end up probably at about 125 points relatively speaking.

Well, I drank most of this prior to digging in to the chocolate cake, and a little bit more afterwards. This was a great wine.

But hey, the chocolate cake was pretty good.

What to do? I am always torn between some crummy dessert that won't fight the Sauternes or chocolate cake.

That is a constant problem.

I agree with TJ's rating - this wine was about a 94pter for me. I wasn't so keen on Sauturnes before this evening, but this wine was superb.

We finished 3/4 of the bottle at the dinner TJ...and I killed the rest with a buddy of mine the following evening. It definitely lost something overnight but was still enjoyable. Was really nice and makes me want to procure some 90 D'yquem. I had 80's vintage D'yquem you might have seen in the cellar but since it was a 1990 party I had to improvise a bit. Next time we will do some D'yquem.

Buy an 1988, 1989 or 1990 d'Yquem; whatever you can get the best deal on. All three are teriffic years. And look for the 1997 starting about now. It is also fantastic; being compared to the famous 1967 vintage. And it is tasting pretty good right now.

In your opinion what is the minimum number of people you need to open a 750ml bottle of '90 d'Yquem? I wish I had some 375ml instead of the 750's. The reason I ask is because I am not a fan of good Sauternes the following day. Do you think 5 people is enough?

IW

If the people like the Sauternes then five should be enough. They will need to all go back for a second glass. I've gone through a bottle amongst four folks. However we had about half the bottle with desert and then the other half after the meal.

If there are just a few of you have (assuming it is a special dinner because you ARE opening an nice Sauternes) start with a fois gras appitizer and drink half of the bottle. Then conclude the dinner with a nice light dessert or even a cheese to drink the second half of the bottle.