Two recent disappointments with famous wines of considerable reputation have reminded me of the inherent problems that can prevent a wine, even from a great estate, from reaching full potential. In this case it was the 1989 La Mission Haut-Brion and the 1990 Haut-Brion. It is only fair for me to acknowledge that I have had compelling wines from both Châteaux over the last 30+ years. I recently wrote about a magnificent bottle of the 2001 La Mission Haut-Brion I enjoyed at Daniel Bould’s Le Gratin restaurant in Manhattan. Alas the bottle of 1989 I shared with friends was as disappointing as the 2001 was thrilling. They say that there are no great wines just great bottles especially for wines of 30-50 years in bottle which are subject to the vicissitudes of storage conditions, the quality or lack thereof of the original corks and the unpredictability of aging itself.