1996 Bordeaux

Last night we had 1996 Poujeaux, Haut Batailley, Lafon Rochet, Lagrange, Pontet Canet, Duhart Milon, and Calon Segur. The last two bottles were corked and I reserve comment, although the Calon Segur seemed to have a lot going on underneath the corkiness. Without going into detail (as we drank the wine with dinner and no one took any sort of notes and it was pretty dark in the restaurant), I am happy to report that everything showed pretty well and much better than on previous occasions. I would have liked to have tried the Duhart, as the other bottles I have had have been very bad with lots of vegetal notes, but we were a bit unlucky. I listed the wines in order of my preference, from least to best (ignore the last two). I think the Pontet Canet will make a very good bottle in a few years.

deesher wrote:Last night we had 1996 Poujeaux, Haut Batailley, Lafon Rochet, Lagrange, Pontet Canet, Duhart Milon, and Calon Segur. The last two bottles were corked and I reserve comment, although the Calon Segur seemed to have a lot going on underneath the corkiness. Without going into detail (as we drank the wine with dinner and no one took any sort of notes and it was pretty dark in the restaurant), I am happy to report that everything showed pretty well and much better than on previous occasions. I would have liked to have tried the Duhart, as the other bottles I have had have been very bad with lots of vegetal notes, but we were a bit unlucky. I listed the wines in order of my preference, from least to best (ignore the last two). I think the Pontet Canet will make a very good bottle in a few years.

1996 was an interesting year for Bordeaux. As with any wine, it's all subject to its environment under which it's grown. Leaving terroir out of this for a moment, I think it's worthwhile to talk about the 96 growing environment in Bordeaux. Most people think that the 96 was about as close to the prime 80's bordeaux, but the question is what do they benefit? I think the real answer to this is that the grapes that saw the most benefit were the Cab Sav grapes rather than the Merlot grapes- and I think most people who are significantly more knowledgable about wine than myself (which is just about everyone) would agree with that. That said the 96 is showing some great fruit bombs with some nice tannin to it.

The 96's are a bit too rich for my pocketbook so I've actually been focusing on the 99's right now. The 99 L'Evangeline I drank last week was heavenly if not a touch young. I had to suck it up- I can't wait 10 years to drink a bottle for the most part if I get it under my skin.