Medium-plus ruby-red colour. Bloody with sweet, dank, faintly sulfury oak and tonnes of turned leaf litter on the forward nose. In the mouth your main impression is the sweet river of acidity running through the core. As you reach the mid-palate the wine expands before slowly contracting into a good finish. I would say that there are many, many years in this wine yet, but it seems to be entering an early window of drinkability
Classic 1996 Corton. The nose is of blood and iron, eventually red berry fruit from the partially drained glass. The palate is linear and intense – almost metallic acidity pushes you into a quite long finish. The only thing that this wine gives away is the free polish of your teeth. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s enjoyable right now – but I was (just about) up to the challenge!
A medium-plus ruby-red core. The nose is about iron and soft, sweet, musky notes topped with fainter blackberry. Linear and intense, this is classic 1996 with mouth-watering acidity and a faint but lingering length. It’s a very clean, concentrated and tidy wine that’s showing little in the way of development and will probably require at least another 5 years to turn a little friendly…
Medium, medium-plus colour. Sweet, ripe red fruit – almost confiture – not so wide but very lovely depth. Wow – very impressive complextity – explosions of taste on the palate, real concentration followed by a slowly tailing-off diminuendo finish. This might not be the smoothest, most romantic wine in the world but it will nock you off your feet with real personality. Bravo!
Medium-plus colour. A wild and impressive nose at the start; oak, a little blood, interesting width, but slowly the oak becomes a little more dominant and the joy fades. Much more subtle entry than the Lejeune Rugiens, a little more tannin but it’s also more linear and focused. Equally potent in the mid-palate and more obvious length – though some of that is, for sure, oak. More depth, but today also less interest than the Lejeune.
Golden. A honied nose – very Meusault, but less-so Perrières – wide with a peach-stone core. Surprisingly sweet with good fat and intensity. The acidity is good but very well covered. This is not the best Perrières I’ve tasted, it is a good but not a great one. As far as the value is concerned, however, this is by far the most interesting of this flight of wines.
Medium-plus ruby red. Aromaticly understated when first opened, hints of deep fruit and unfocused high-tones. Given time the nose both deepens and widens, at the same time bringing everything into better focus – really lovely. In the mouth this is silky and intensly concentrated, the acidity is much more ’96-like than either of the Clos de la Roche or Clos St.Denis; the acidity is to the fore and shows just a hint of a metallic edge, but it’s very smooth acidity. The finish is not so long as the ‘Roche’, but like the ‘Denis’, this is a good deal more linear if not primary. The acidity begs you to swallow the wine, so the tannins just slip by. I don’t expect this will reach its apogee for at least another 5 years – when I will gladly try again.
Medium, medium-plus ruby-red. The nose is wild and interesting; savoury and fecund maybe even a licorice edge, yet there is tight core of red fruit too that will need more time to fully blossom. This wine shows the most tannin of the 4 Castagniers, faintly drying but leaving a fine, soft coating on your teeth. Really intense, the concentration does a great job of balancing the acidity. The palate is quite backward though perhaps not so much as the Bonnes-Mares. A super nose, the palate just needs another 3-5 years to catch up. Will be super.
Medium-plus ruby red. The nose is a beauty; a meaty base with sweet delineated fruit of real depth, loses a little of the higher tones with time in the glass. The fruit is concentrated and dense, velvety and plush without being too fat, though dense enough to amply cover the super acidity. The finish is long even for a grand cru. Still rather linear, rather than growing the mouth it’s a slow diminuendo. Very lovely now and no rush to consume.
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