A soft and spongy cork. The colour is a medium-plus ruby red showing just a faint amber edge. The first note is a hard sulfur note and it takes quite some time to lift, slowly a quite striking violet note over soft red cherry comes through – quite a compelling impression. The palate starts quite short, but lengthens in tandem with the improvement in the nose. The tannin is still quite astringent and the overall impression is still a little harsh. The acidity is good and the nose eventually shines but this wine remains the Curate’s egg. If you want to drink now, decant or open a couple of hours before pouring.

At last, a good bottle from this case, the first was all bottle-stink and the second had sulfur which had fixed in the wine. Medium-plus ruby-red. Very interesting nose, deep and meaty, a hint of gun-flint and occasional flashes of piercingly lovely red berry fruits. Great texture, there’s still some tannin, but it’s very fine. Like most 96’s there is an obviously fresh complexion from the acidity but there’s enough red-berry fruit to balance it out – it will, however, always remain acid-forward, though the balance will see it live for many years to come – certainly no rush over the next 10! Very enjoyable.

I remember my first bottle from this case, on release there was overwhelming sulfur on the nose, I took it back to the merchant as it was completely undrinkable – even 4 hours after opening – this was where I learned about bottle stink, but they still replaced the bottle! This second bottle didn’t start much better, perhaps worse, the sulfur has slowly evolved to hydrosulfite – that means very smelly cabbage. The palate manages to show just a little creamy length, but for me the dominating factor is the sulfur infused edge. Even on day two and despite the nose clearing up a little the palate was the same – perhaps worse as there was even a hint of oxidation. I’ll give this case one more chance this time next year – if it fails I’ll be looking for the merchant to take them back – potentially good wine spoiled by too much sulfur.

Deep ruby – just fading a little. A lovely nose of focused red cherry overlaying candied red fruits. Concentrated fruit on the palate with smooth, very 1996, acidity and well hidden tannins. It doesn’t have the fat it showed 3 years ago, but is still some way from maturity. Very good villages.