1996

1996 Belland Jean-Claude Santenay Comme

By on October 31, 2007 #asides

Medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose starts with a fine berry/raspberry note, set against a deeper brooding background – lovely – shame then that after 30 minutes you are left only with the brooding background! The palate itself is fresh and like very many of the lower appellation wines from this vintage, it is defined mainly by it’s acidity. Overall the tannin is hidden but the palate is linear and narrow, concentrated for all that but surprisingly primary. Length is almost good. Overall there is little here to suggest that it’s 11 years since the vintage. I wonder if/when it will ever open out – one more bottle remains – so I’ll give it one more chance, age 15, but I wouldn’t buy more.

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1996 Hospices de Beaune Beaune Cuvée Nicolas Rolin

By on July 31, 2007 #asides

A Chanson Père bottling. Medium-plus colour. The nose is deep and forward but throughout most of our time together it was always a little uncouth – there was finally a pretty red fruit note to save it. The palate is much better; density, very good acidity, background tannin and rather long – though like many from 96 the flavour profile is just a little metallic. Quite tasty but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more.

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1996 Jaboulet Vercherre Beaune Clos de l'Ecu

By on July 31, 2007 #asides

Medium-pale ruby-red. The nose has a high-toned start with a little resinous/green background, slowly a little jammier depth comes through. The palate is a little thin, with tart acidity, mild tannin and a rather unripe finish – if you persevere, your palate adjusts a little and there is some apparent sweetness – but I wouldn’t recommend it. Is this the worst wine I’ve opened this year? – well there was that 96 Lamadon Echézeaux, but more on that another day – for now this has that dubious award.

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1996 Belland Jean-Claude Chambertin

By on July 31, 2007 #asides

The colour is a rather deep mahogany with just a hint of ruby-red in the reflections. The nose shouts of toasty oak when first poured but rapidly starts to show a super depth and even height of red shaded fruits then finally some floral violet notes – super complexity and quite impressive. After the 2000 Thomas-Moillard St.Vivant this is excredibly lithe, tight and acid-driven – it takes a few sips to adjust before calm is restored. There’s real intensity here and though the finish is quite understated, it is very long. You sense rather than feel the tannins due to a faint astringency, but they are very well behaved. Slowly the density builds in the mid-palate rounding the wine out more and more – I’d say this conservatively needs another 5 years to make the next step from impressive to excellent. This was really super value costing ‘only’ ~€50, I seem to remember the price jumping significantly for the 1999 vintage, today I’ve lost touch on the pricing.

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1996 Engel René Vosne-Romanée

By on July 31, 2007 #asides

Medium ruby-red. The nose right from opening is a bit of a star. Deep with a twist of oak before transparent red berry and redcurrant notes come through. Plenty of higher, slightly volatile notes too – but always quite compelling. The palate is just a little more challenging – very forward acidity, indeed borderline ‘too much acidity’, very, very linear presentation, still a little astringent tannin remains, but there’s also some bitterness in the finish. No sign of decline because this is exactly how the wine presented itself for the whole 3 hours before it was gone. A bit of a challenge this bottle, balanced by the lovely aromatics.

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1996 Leroy (Maison) Bourgogne Rouge

By on March 31, 2007 #asides

I bought a case of this in ‘98 and that first bottle majored on mouth-puckering acidity; time has worked a little magic. Medium ruby red. The nose is a mix sweet red cherry and not too heavy plum. Nicely textured, this is elegant, again nicely plummy red fruit with very good but certainly not overstated acidity. The finish is understated and interesting. The table finished this bottle in double-quick time! There’s lots of life left in these bottles.

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1996 Barthod Ghislaine Chambolle-Musigny

By on March 31, 2007 #asides

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.

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1996 Château Chorey-les-Beaune - Germain Beaune Les Teurons

By on March 31, 2007 #asides

Medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose is high-toned and wide with a pronounced meaty/savoury aspect – characterful but it didn’t work for me. The main impression from the palate is the acidity – forward but quite soft. The wine is certainly intense and long, but at this stage in its development the aroma and flavour profile don’t endear it to me – more of a spotty adolescent than mature interest. Previous bottles have been much nicer so I will give this the benefit of the doubt. Remaining bottles will not be touched in the next 3-4 years…

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1996 Bachelet Denis Charmes-Chambertin

By on March 31, 2007 #asides

Medium-plus colour. The nose starts more oaky than I remember. The fruit is dense and red – super-clean like gelée. The palate starts wide and then narrows, then narrows some more – very linear, understated and long. This is super but very much younger showing than my last visit.

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