The 1996 Castagnier of the weekend was just so damn good – so why not a couple more from 1996?

I’d been doing a little cellar-sorting and had happened upon (as you do…) some older Cortons – that would work!

1996 Thomas-Moillard, Corton Clos du Roi
A cuvée that Clive Coates used to love from this producer that, like most Corton of the era, was something of a masochistic pleasure when younger. The cork had no more than a mm of wine that had had tried to travel up its length and was very impressively robust – a great cork! Or not. The wine was actually corked!!!
Rebuy – No

1996 Hospices de Beaune, Corton Cuvée Charlotte Dumay
Way back when, I scored a whole case of this – do you remember 12-bottle cases of grand crus? Just two remained from this case – a wine equivalently masochistic as the TM when young but, historically, a bit less energy and flavour precision than the TM. Also a decent cork but a wine that smelled much sweeter – though with a tell-tale accent of brett. Just for information, I like Marmite (Vegemite) on my toast but within short order, this wine absolutely stank of the stuff. Pinch your nose and you could lose some of it – but NO! I could no-longer put it in my mouth. Reject!
Rebuy – No

Some weeks, the cellar depletes faster than other weeks!