Everything that I saw from cask made it into bottle intact and words remain inadequate to describe just how good this wine is. Classic La Tâche in every respect with its incredibly pure, marvelously intense oriental spice box nose, flavors of hoisin and pure pinot extract of indescribable complexity and length. The big tannins are completely wrapped in velvet and the finish simply does not quit. Destined to become one of the all time great vintages of La Tâche.

A dark, exotic beauty, the 1999 La Tâche hits the palate with scents of soy, blackberry, licorice, grilled herbs, smoke, graphite and lavender. The 1999 is a distinctly brooding, dark La Tâche that speaks with a real sense of gravitas. Just at the very early part of its drinking window, the 1999 will offer profound drinking over the next several decades.

Integrated, layered and complex, this wine is incredibly structured yet still fresh and lively. It’s inky black and exotic, with a waft of baking spices and cedar, plus rounded chocolatey tones that drive long but without any unnecessary force. DRC harvest notes say: '1999 marked the first year we couldn’t have done anything better... The grapes of 1999 were perhaps the most perfect we had ever seen.' That poise and purpose hasn’t faltered in two decades.

Full ruby-red. Impressively pure nose of raspberry, strawberry, minerals, oriental spices and sexy oak. Superripe, lush and highly concentrated; already very expressive in the mouth, thanks to its utterly silky texture and wonderfully fine tannins. Explosively long and youthful on the back end. Consistently pure and fine from start to finish.

The medium to dark ruby-colored 1999 La Tache has sweet, tangy raspberry, black currant, candied cherry, leather, and spice aromas. This medium to full-bodied wine is harmonious, refined, and powerful. It is expansive, magnificently delineated, and feminine, particularly for La Tache. Its flavor profile is crammed with an assortment of super-ripe red and black fruit laced with vanilla beans. It has loads of sweet tannin that can be detected in its admirable finish. Importer: Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, CA; tel. (707) 963-9661.

Tasted at the La Tâche vertical at The Square. Having not tasted the La Tâche 1999 since it had been bottled, I was intrigued to see how it was developing. Monumentally, is the correct answer. First and foremost this is a seriously long-term La Tâche that is maturing at a glacial pace. Indeed, I left most in my glass and waited for it to open. An hour later and it was firing on all cylinders. It is blessed with an incredibly intense, powerful nose that loses its broodiness with aeration and eventually unveils a crystalline set of mineral-soaked aromatics that sport a decadent, almost exotic floral note–wilted violets and potpourri. The palate has a quite astonishing structure, but it is more the symmetry that makes this one of the greatest vintages of recent years. It unfolds with daring passion to reveal layers of plush but focused dark plum and cassis fruit that just seem to flow and flow on the never-ending finish. It is a multifaceted, multidimensional masterpiece that really needs another decade in bottle.